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WILLIAM JKNM.NCS liliYAN. 



An Appreciation 
From a Republican Viewpoint 



BRYAN THE MAN 



THE GREAT COMMONER 
AT CLOSE RANGE 



AN INTIMATE AND IMPARTIAL REVIEW OF 
THE PERSONAL SIDE OF HIS LIFE, TOGETHER 
WITH A HISTORY OF HIS PUBLIC CAREER 



.,;-t^ 



Albert L: Gale 

AND 

George W, Kline 



"Speak of me as I am, nothing extenuate, 
Nor aught set down in malice." 




SAINT LOUIS 

THE THOMPSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1908 



■M 



Q> 



K 






Two C-'ni-s Received 

JUL ,30 lyu8 

class/ /I AAc No, 

^f 2. 2>cc 

COPY A. 

" " " — w mi VM M 



Copyright, 1908. by 

The Thompson Publishing Co. 

St. Louis 



INTRODUCTION. 

A history of the life of William Jennings Bryan 
seems not untimely, especially when for the third time 
he is one of the most conspicuous figures in a contest 
having to do with the Presidency of the United States. 
Other biographies of Mr. Bryan have been written, 
ably and interestingly, by personal friends and polit- 
ical adherents, but the authors of this little volume 
claim for it that it is the first non-partisan appreciation 
of the great Nebraskan's life. This sketch is prepared 
by two men who are not of Mr. Bryan's political faith, 
and its production is prompted only by a thorough 
liking for a good and noble citizen, without thought 
of the theories w^hieh have helped to bring him fame. 

The book herewith presented is, therefore, a tribute 
to Mr, Bryan's personal worth and not to his political 
and economical beliefs. No criticism of his career is 
offered. It is not a handbook for either political party. 
Here will be found no undue praise, neither is there 
fault-finding of any kind. The merits of Mr. Bryan's 
policies are not made the subject of discussion. The 
events of his fine, fruitful life are merely recorded in 
simple words, and an efl'ort is made to throw upon a 
distinguished subject the light of contemporaneous 
histor}'^, recording his deeds with close adherence to 
facts and offering neither criticism nor argument with 



4 INTRODUCTION 

reference to the things for which he has contended 
since he became one of the leaders of the American 
people. 

The demand for such a volume as this need not 
come alone from those who are in sympathy with Mr, 
Bryan as a Democrat. Those who do not follow his 
teachings, but who have come to believe that, right 
or wrong as to his politics, he has proved himself to 
be one of the great men of present-day life, may find 
this work to their liking. The most accurate histories 
of the world have been written in biographical form. 
No literary force has been stronger than biography, 
and the one claim made for this book is that it is an 
accurate, uncolored biography, with a familiar touch 
that will, perhaps, enable the reader to know Bryan, 
the Man, better than he knows him now. 

We shall make no extravagant claims for the states- 
manship of Mr. Bryan. The record of his life, as 
here outlined, will convey to the reader a knowledge 
of whether or not he has proved himself to be a 
statesman and a man worthy of being classed with the 
truly great. Written by two residents of the sub- 
ject's home city, it is believed by the authors that the 
chapters touching Mr. Bryan's domestic life, his work 
as a writer, lecturer and agriculturist and his move- 
ments and pleasures from day to day will give a faith- 
ful picture of the real Bryan. 



A NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 

In the preparation of this work the authors have re- 
ferred to many authorities and have quoted, to a 
limited extent, from the opinions of writers who have 
Avritten about Mr. Bryan. For other favors we are 
indebted to numerous persons and publications. 
Therefore, for courtesies extended we desire to express 
gratitude to Charles Willis Thompson, of the As- 
sociated Press; Mr. Day Allen Willey, Mr, James B. 
Morrow, The World's Work, The North American Re- 
view, Mr. Henry Barrett Chamberlain of Chicago; 
The Review of Reviews, The Outlook, Mr. Hayne 
Davis, Mr. A. L. Bixby, Mr. H. E. Newbranch, Mr. 
C. B. Edgar, publisher of The Lincoln Daily Star; 
the Thompson Publishing company, publisher of ''The 
Old World and Its Ways"; Mr. Bryan's book, 'The 
First Battle" ; the Hon. Gilbert M. Hitchcock, and the 
Orcutt News Company of Lincoln. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 3 

List of Illustrations / 8 

Bryan the Man 9 

A Bryan Biography 19 

Campaign of 1896 29 

Campaign of 1900 38 

The 1904 Campaign 43 

Campaign of 1908 50 

The Bryans in the Old World 59 

The Home Coming 66 

The Bryan Farm 80 

Home Life of the Bryans 89 

Bryan as an Editor 100 

Bryan as a Humorist 114 

Bryan as a Soldier 123 

Bryan as a Lecturer 131 

Bryan in the Pulpit 141 

Bryan's Friends 170 

Incidents of Bryan's" Career 178 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

William Jennings Bryan Frontispiece 

Mr. Bryan in His Study 16 

Mr. Bryan in Oratorical Action 24 

Mr. Bryan Addressing Home Folks at Dedication of 

City Park 33 

Mr. Bryan Receiving the Democratic National Com- 
mittee 40 

Mr. Bryan Arriving in Lincoln after His Trip Around 
The World 48 

A View of the Bryan Farm, Fairview 65 

Fairview— The Bryan Home at Lincoln 80 

Mrs. William J. Bryan 97 

William J. Bryan, Jr 100 

Mrs. Ruth Bryan Leavitt and Her Children 102 

Grace Dexter Bryan 112 

The Reception Hall in Fairview 129 

Mr. Bryan in Front of the Ofifice of The Commoner. .144 

Mayor Francis W. Brown of Lincoln 161 

Chris. Gruenther 161 

T. S. Allen , 176 

Gilbert M. Hitchcock 176 



CHAPTER I. 

BRYAN THE MAN. 

In William Jennings Bryan is found proof of the 
fact that a man need not "stop growing" when he has 
arrived at the age of 36. That was the number of his 
years when, in 1896, he was first nominated for Presi- 
dent of the United States, and no doubt there were 
many at that time who held a prejudice against him 
because they believed him too youthful and inexperi- 
enced for a position of such vast responsibility. 

At the time of Mr. Bryan's first candidacy he had 
graduated from college and from a law school, had 
practiced his profession for thirteen years, had served 
two terms in Congress, had won a national reputation 
as an orator and had been the editor of a daily news- 
paper. His tariff speech in the House of Representa- 
tives had attracted the attention of the country and 
his free silver speeches had found enthusiastic en- 
dorsers in all political organizations. 

Still, Mr. Bryan had not, by common consent, been 
enrolled among the country's great men. His party 
followers foretold a brilliant political career for him, 
but even the most loyal of these did not believe that 
he would lead them in a national campaign as a Presi- 
dential candidate or that he would achieve the inter- 



10 BRYAN THE MAN 

national fame that has come to him during the period 
of his remarkable activity. 

When he went to Chicago in 1896, as a Nebraska 
delegate to the Democratic national convention, Mr. 
Bryan was a man of unpretentious means. He really 
lived in a cottage. He had been practicing law because 
he could make a living at it and had later edited a 
newspaper because he enjoyed that kind of work. This 
division of his time possibly created a prejudice against 
him in the minds of many who did not agree with his 
political views, and it was frequently charged by his 
opponent that Bryan had ''dabbled" in various things 
and had not proved more than ordinarily successful 
in any one of his undertakings. 

No doubt many of the delegates to that convention 
of 1896 had never heard of Mr. Bryan, except in a 
way that left an indistinct impression upon their 
minds, when he arose to address them on the occasion 
that led to his nomination. He went to Chicago as a 
delegate-at-large from Nebraska and as a correspondent 
for the newspaper of which he was the editor-in-chief. 
Few of his friends knew that he entertained an ambi- 
tion to be President. But Mrs. Bryan knew it, and the 
wonderful speech he delivered in the midst of the fight 
on a party platform had been prepared for the fateful 
hour. There is little doubt that Mr. Bryan and his 
wife believed that if he could command the attention 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. H 

of the convention he would deliver an address that 
would sway the delegates and result in his nomination. 

The story of that convention and of Bryan's second 
effort to be elected President will be told in succeeding 
chapters. Two campaigns, with innumerable speeches, 
with a book relating to Mr. Bryan's "First Battle" and, 
in the second campaign, with a weekly newspaper es- 
tablished in Lincoln, served to give him world-wide 
publicity. His name quickly became a familiar one 
in every civilized country on the globe, and his powers 
as a si^eaker easily sustained the reputation that he had 
formed through having been twice conspicuously be- 
fore the American people. 

Mr. Bryan's second defeat found the Chautauqua 
and winter lecture course movements in their period of 
development. Cities, towns and hamlets formed their 
Ij^ceum and Chautauqua associations, and one of the 
speakers most in demand at all of them was William 
J. Bryan. During the last eight years he has visited 
every state in the Union several times, has appeared 
before thousands of audiences and has remained a 
strong favorite even at places where his appearances 
have been numerous. 

Add to these ojDportunities for reaching the public 
his widely advertised journey around the world, fol- 
lowed by his own book, ''The Old World and Its 
Ways," and it may be safely said that the name of no 



12 BRYAN THE MAN 

other man of our times has appeared more frequently 
in the public prints than that of Mr. Bryan, and that 
no face, except that of President Roosevelt, is so famil- 
iar to the American people as the face of the Nebraska 
Commoner. 

The lecture platform and his newspaper have of 
course brought to Mr. Bryan a comfortable income 
and his receipts have been well invested, the major 
portion of them in a fine country home near Lincoln. 
Here, where a big brick house tops a gently sloping 
hill, with all the accessories of farm life in the sur- 
rounding fields and buildings, Mr. Bryan passes his 
happiest hours. He loves good books and follows a 
wide range of reading, although, of course, political 
and economic works command the greater portion of 
his time. In the home at Fairview he greets his 
friends cordially, humble and influential alike, and 
there is, to use an abused term, a deal of "Democratic 
simplicity" in the home life of this man. 

With his townsmen Mr. Bryan is most congenial 
and his appearance on the streets of Lincoln, when he 
drives into town behind a heavy farm team, is that of 
a common citizen. He holds active membership in the 
Round Table club of Lincoln, whose members repre- 
sent all religious beliefs and political theories, and the 
discussions at these meetings are sometimes vigorous 
and heated. But the close of the argument is invari- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 13 

ably marked by good fellowship and a true spirit of 
we.stern neighborliness, which Mr. Bryan shares in no 
small measure. 

No person in Lincoln, where Bryan has lived since 
1887, has ever been heard to say a word against Mr. 
Bryan as a man. Even his townsmen who opposed 
him most bitterly in the campaigns of 189'6 and 1900 
have the highest respect for him, for he ha.s at all 
times lived the life of the Christian gentleman. The 
charge of hyjDocrisy cannot be made to lie against him. 
A faithful member of the Presbyterian church, his acts 
on week days are as upright as his deeds of Sunday, 
and no words of derision can be hurled in his direction 
when he stands in a pulpit and preaches the religion 
of Jesus Christ. 

Mr. Bryan is generous and kind. He treats every- 
body fairly, and demands in return that he be treated 
that way. He can show a bit of righteous indignation 
when he has been dishonestly dealt with, but this has 
not been known to lead to the cherishing of resent- 
ment against one who has mistreated him or to a de- 
sire to "even up" the score. No man this country has 
produced has been more severely abused from the plat- 
form and in the press than has Mr. Bryan, yet his 
replies to these attacks have invariably been marked 
by an almost marvelous degree of politeness and con- 
sideration. 



14 BRYAN THE MAN 

Mr. Bryan has verita;bly won his way into the hearts 
of his "home folks." He has thoroughly proved him- 
self in the twelve years that have passed since he first 
ran for President. Coming from comparative obscur- 
ity, he was suddenly thrust into a place that drew the 
focus of the limelight and fastened upon him the eyes 
of the country and of the world. Put a man in that 
position, and his neighbors are reasonably sure, many 
of them, to treat him ungraciously if not unkindly. 
Mankind is slow to recognize greatness in the "home 
fellow." 

In 1896, as we have said, the people of Lincoln knew 
Mr. Bryan as a clever young lawyer, as an orator of 
unusual promise, as a Christian gentleman and as a 
student of politics who owned a few theories to which 
he clung with as great tenacity as a child clings to a 
doll. He would not let them go until the people had 
repudiated them, and in those days, when corporations 
had more to say about the conduct of affairs political 
than they have today, he was termed a "crank." The 
result was that when Mr. Bryan, a Presidential candi- 
date, returned home from Chicago in 1896 there were 
many in Lincoln — alleged friends, too — who were 
shocked and displeased. 

So Mr. Bryan came back home from Chicago, but 
in the larger sense he had not "arrived." His towns- 
men regarded him as their equal in most things, as 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 15 

their inferior in some, but as their superior in none 
save, possibly, the oratorical line. To look up to him 
as a Presidential possibility was, except to the Demo- 
crats who had been faithful during the period of his 
unfolding, a matter to be resented by lawyers whose 
pockets were fat with briefs and by capitalists whose 
bank accounts helped to spell the word "Success." 

In 1900 conditions at home were much the same. 
]\Ir. Bryan was still a young man, and many of his 
neighbors could not persuade themselves that he was 
above the average man. Then came the eight years in 
which this leader proved his quality. He sustained 
his reputation as an orator and became the best public 
speaker in the United States. Furthermore, he lived 
up to his reputation as a good man and held firmly to 
Christianity throughout the years. He developed as a 
business man, and showed, to the confusion of those 
who called him a business failure, that he could guard 
a dollar well and compel it to perform its proper pur- 
pose. 

In other words, the last eight years have constituted 
Mr. Bryan's period of unfolding, and he has come 
forth a full-grown man. The neighbors who called 
him audacious a few years ago now concede his ability. 
They admire him and they like him as a statesman, a 
neighbor and friend. Bryan has "made good" with 
the home folks, and the home folks at last appreciate 



■j^g BRYAN THE MAN 

him for what he really is. Perhaps, after all, this is 
his greatest victory. 

If you would have a mental picture of ''Bryan the 
Man," imagine a straight, sturdy specimen 5 feet 10 
inches tall, with a comfortable and well-fed weight of, 
.say, near 200 pounds. He walks briskly and carries 
his 'stout body like a soldier. There is speed in his 
limbs and strength in his broad back. His face may 
show signs of weariness, but his body never looks tired. 
After he has gone many days and nights with but little 
rest, he looks good for as many more. Energy oozes 
from the Bryan pores, and industry, either mental or 
physical, is a characteristic. 

Bryan, though neat in appearance, cares little for 
fine clothes and it is obvious that he employs no valet, 
for sometimes there is a dreadful bagginess of his 
trousers at the knees. But one scarce notices the Bryan 
limbs, or the wide waist-line, or even the ever-present 
turn-down collar and black tie, for the sufficient reason 
that one's eyes are held by the Bryan face. 

A wonderful mouth tops the huge iron jaw— the 
famous jaw that can promote a smile, give emphasis 
to eloquent words or set tight with a grim determina- 
tion that nothing will move. The Bryan features are 
large and kindly. His eyes flash or twinkle in turn, 
as the mood of their owner directe, and his mobile 
countenance affords fitting accompaniment to his 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 17 

glances and his words. The Bryan head has grown 
quite bald, on top, but the familiar fringe of hair still 
stands out conspicuously under the Bryan broad- 
brimmed hat. 

The man of Fairview takes a lively interest in the 
humblest affairs of the workaday world. Sometimes, 
when the cares of the Chautauqua circuit, or of the 
lyceum platform, or of the editorial sanctum, or of the 
political conference do not rest heavily upon him, he 
digs into the work at home and "helps the boys." 
When Bryan comes to town, at such times as these, he 
rides in the most unpretentious sort of vehicles, drawn 
perhaps by a heavy work team from the farm. Then 
is when the Bryan shoulders stoop, if there be no back 
to the wagon seat; then is when Bryan acquires the 
true rural "hump" and, from a distance, looks like any 
other farmer on his way to town. 

When Bryan drivas to town possibly he goes first to 
his newspaper office; then, perchance, to a harness 
shop, where he has a buckle fastened to a broken 
bridle; then to the grocery to leave an order for the 
kitchen at Fairview. No little job is too small for 
Bryan to undertake when large things do not demand 
his time. On the farm he can do as much as one of 
the hired hands. His fingers can entice milk from 
the generous udder of a cow, and his brawny arms can 
toss hay to the top of the highest stack in the field. 



18 BRYAN THE MAN 

He can mend a fence or cut the alfalfa, nurse an ail- 
ing pig back to health or ride the cultivator with ac- 
curate regard for the rows of tender corn. 

In all respects Bryan is a plain man and a man of 
toil. In the words of Mrs. Bryan, "his life has been 
one of earnest purpose, with that sort of genius which 
has been called 'a capacity for hard work.' " 



CHAPTER II. 

A BRYAN BIOGRAPHY. 

Of what we set down in this book, as little as possi- 
ble shall be devoted to a Bryan chronology. There is 
no intention of burdening the reader with dates and 
names. Rather is it the purpose to get closer to the 
Bryan life and character than is possible in the rela- 
tion of facts in straight biographical form, and yet 
something of this kind is needed to complete a work 
of such a class and to weave for the reader who fol- 
lows the succeeding chapters a concise, orderly story 
of Mr. Bryan's life. So this little sub-division will be 
devoted to genealogy and to a recital of the principal 
events that have constituted Mr. Bryan's career. 

Mrs. Bryan, in "The First Battle," published by her 
husband just after the campaign of 1896, says some of 
the Bryans trace their ancestry to Ireland, some to 
Wales, while others have followed the name through 
Irish into English history. 

The first ancestor whose name is known to the liv- 
ing descendants was William Bryan. He lived in Cul- 
pepper county, Virginia, and owned a tract of land in 
the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Sperryville. "The 
family name of his wife," says Mrs. Bryan, "is un- 
known." Five children were born to William Bryan 
and his wife and the second of these was John, born 

19 



20 BRYAN THE MAN 

about 1790, and who married Nancy Lillard, of an 
old American family of English extraction. To John 
and his wife ten children were born, and one of these 
was Silas, father of William Jennings Bryan. 

Silas Bryan was born November 4, 1822, near Sper- 
ryville, Va., the old family home. When a boy he 
came wast, made his way through the public schools 
and entered McKendree College, at Lebanon, Illinois, 
where he graduated in 1849. In vacation time he 
worked as a farm laborer or taught school. His was 
the sturdy schooling of the west, and hardship pre- 
ceded every achievement. 

After graduation, Silas Bryan studied law and when 
29 years old began the practice of that profession in 
Salem, Illinois. He was married in 1852 to Mariah 
Elizabeth Jennings, a member of an old American 
family believed to be of English origin. Silas Bryan's 
wife was born near Walnut Hill, Illinois, in 1834, and 
at one time she was a pupil of the man who became 
her husband. 

Silas Bryan was successful in the practice of law. 
He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1852 and 
served for eight years. In 1860 he was elected to the 
circuit bench and served twelve years. In 1872 he 
was the Democratic Congressional candidate in his dis- 
trict, receiving also the support of the Greenback 
party, but was defeated by General James Martin, Re- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 21 

publican. Mr. Bryan helped to frame the present con- 
stitution of the state of Illinois and in various 
other ways left his impress upon those movements 
which served to advance the interests of a great com- 
monAvealth. He was a devout man, a member of the 
Baptist church. His wife, a Methodist at the time of 
her marriage, joined her husband's church. William 
J. Bryan, however, is a member of the Presbyterian 
church. 

Silas Bryan died March 30, 1880. His wife died 
June 27, 1896, only a short time before the nomina- 
tion of her son for the Presidency. 

Nine children were born to Silas Lillard and Mariah 
Elizabeth Bryan. Of these William Jennings was the 
fourth, born March 19, 1860, in Salem, Illinois. Wil- 
liam studied, played and worked on his father's farm, 
near Salem, until he was 10 years old. His mother 
was his teacher. ''He learned to read quite early,", 
says Mrs. Bryan in her biographical sketch. "After 
committing his lessons to memory, he stood upon a 
little table and spoke them to his mother. This was 
his first recorded effort at speech-making." 

Some of Bryan's critics have called him a good 
preacher, nothing more. Mrs. Bryan, in "The First 
Battle," says that one of the memories belonging to 
William Jennings' boyhood period was his ambition 
to be a minister. "This, however, soon gave place to 



22 BRYAN THE MAN 

determination to become a lawyer, 'like father.' This 
purpose was a lasting one and his education was di- 
rected toward that end." 

When he was 10 years of age William entered the 
public schools at Salem and was a pupil there for five 
years. At 15 he entered Whipple Academy, the pre- 
paratory department of Illinois College, Jacksonville, 
and later matriculated in the college proper, being a 
student at Jacksonville for six years. During that 
period he devoted much time to public speaking and 
took part in many oratorical contests. He represented 
Illinois College in the intercollegiate contest held at 
Galesburg in 1880, winning the second prize, $50. In 
his graduation year he was elected class orator and, 
having the highest rank in scholarship for the four 
years of his college course, was the valedictorian on 
commencement day. That was in June, 1881. The 
subject of his oration was "Character." 

In the fall of 1881 Bryan entered the Union College 
of Law at Chicago, and while a student there spent 
many of his hours reading in the law office of his good 
friend and adviser, Lyman Trumbull. Two years 
were passed in the law school, and in 1883, after his 
graduation, he began the practice of his profession in 
Jacksonville, first obtaining desk room in the office of 
Brown & Kirby. Mr. Brown, of this firm, is a brother 
of F. W. Brown, mayor of Lincoln, Neb., a delegate 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 23 

to the Democratic convention of 1908 and a long-time 
friend of Mr. Bryan. 

On October 1, 1884, Mr. Bryan was married to Maiy 
Baird, and at this time the authors would for a moment 
leave the subject in hand to permit a word of tribute 
to a good woman, the true companion and helpmate of 
William J. Bryan. Mi's. Bryan possesses great ability, 
is skilled in literary w^ork, is a good counselor in all of 
her husband's affairs, and 'tis said that she has helped 
him more than a little in the various tasks that have 
served to place him so prominently before the people 
of the world. Mrs. Bryan's excellent judgment and 
her clear, clean-cut criticisms have no doubt been of 
great service to her husband. 

Mary Baird was the only child of John and Lovina 
Baird, of Perry, Illinois, her father being a merchant 
of that town. She was born June 17, 1861. After 
attending the public schools she entered Monticello 
Seminary at Godfrey, Illinois, remaining there one 
year, and then went to the Presbyterian Academy at 
Jacksonville, where she graduated at the end of two 
years. After her marriage in 1884 she read law, with 
her husband as instructor, taking the course prescribed 
by his college. The Nebraska supreme court admitted 
her to practice in 1888. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bryan have three children: Mrs. 
Ruth Bryan Leavitt, age 22; William J. Bryan, Jr., 
age 19 ; and Grace Dexter Bryan, age 17. 



24 BRYAN THE MAN 

For three years the Bryans lived in Jacksonville, 
and a constantly growing law practice was the reward 
of the husband's industry. In the summer of 1887 
Mr. Bryan was called to Lincoln, Nebraska, on legal 
business, and while there was the guest over Sunday of 
a young Lincoln attorney, A. R, Talbot, who had been 
a college classmate. Mr, Bryan liked Lincoln so well 
that he decided to leave Jacksonville, become a resi- 
dent of the Nebraska capital, and form a law partner- 
ship with Mr, Talbot. These things he did, and since 
the spring of 1888, when Mrs. Bryan and her little 
daughter Ruth joined the husband and father in his 
new home, the Bryans have been Nebraskans. 

Immediately after coming to Nebraska Mr. Bryan 
became actively connected with the Democratic organ- 
ization in the state, his first political speech being de- 
livered in the spring of 1888 at Seward. Soon after 
that he was a delegate to the Democratic state conven- 
tion, and in a short time was in demand wherever po- 
litical meetings were held by his party. 

In 1890 he was the Democratic nominee for Con- 
gress against W. J. Connell, of Omaha, who then rep- 
resented the First district, and Bryan made such a 
thorough canvass and his speeches were so effective 
that he was elected in spite of a large normal Repub- 
lican majority. 

In Congress the chairman of the ways and means 







Photographs by T. K. Ilall.l.iiMni. O'Xi-ill. Xel). 

MR. r.UYAX I\ OliATOKICAL ACTION. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 25 

committee, Mr. Springer, of the Jacksonville district 
in Illinois, obtained a place for Bryan on that com- 
mittee and the first important speech made by the 
Nebraskan in Congress was on the tariff in 1892. This 
speech gave Bryan a national reputation and it was 
wddely commented upon in all the newspapers of the 
country. The address was pronounced by many as 
one of the greatest efforts ever heard in the House of 
Representatives. 

Before the next election the state of Nebraska had 
been re-districted. Bryan was again nominated to rep- 
resent the First district, which under the new arrange- 
ment did not include the city of Omaha, and his Re- 
publican opponent was Judge Allen W. Field, of Lin- 
coln. Bryan's plurality when he first ran for Congress 
was 6,713. He defeated Judge Field by only 140. 

During his second term Bryan was again a conspicu- 
ous figure on the minority side of the House, and it 
was at this time that he began to pay special attention 
to monetary legislation, favoring the free coinage of 
silver. 

In 1894 Mr. Bryan was not a candidate for the 
House, but announced his desire to go to the United 
States Senate. It was reasonably sure that John M. 
Thurston would be the choice of the Republicans for 
that office, and two debates between Bryan and Thurs- 
ton were arranged. These are counted among the 



26 BRYAN THE MAN 

greatest political meetings ever held in the west. The 
Republicans carried the state that year and Mr, 
Thurston was elected Senator. 

Having lost the Senatorial fight, and having done 
little law work in the years of his Congressional serv- 
ice, Bryan accepted the invitation of the owner of the 
Omaha World-Herald to become editor-in-chief of that 
newspaper. He began his journalistic career Septem- 
ber 1, 1894. He went to the Republican national con- 
vention in St. Louis in 1896 as a newspaper corre- 
spondent and was still the editor of the World-Herald 
when the Democrats of Nebraska elected him as one 
of their delegates-at-large to the national convention 
in Chicago. The story of that convention, with the 
free silver movement at its flood and with Bryan elec- 
trifying the convention in a manner that brought 
about his own nomination for the Presidency, is told 
in another chapter. 

Before the convention of 1896 Bryan had begun his 
work as a Chautauqua lecturer. This he continued 
and enlarged after his defeat in the first Presidential 
race, and he has been remarkably successful on the 
platform. The amount of his income from lectures 
and from his weekly newspaper is a matter of frequent 
dispute, but in justice to Mr. Bryan, and as a defense 
against the charge that he has amassed a great fortune, 
it may be said that he has made many speeches with- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 27 

out pay and that in various instances he has paid his 
own expenses in order that he might address an audi- 
ence on a favorite theme or in behalf of a cause from 
which he could not expect personal gain. Neverthe- 
less, Mr. Bryan has added largely to his stock of 
worldly goods and he will not deny that he has 
reached a position requiring his classification among 
those who are "well off." 

The four years between 1896 and 1900, when Mr. 
Bryan was again a candidate for the Presidency, were 
filled with work on the lecture platform and in the 
library of his little home in Lincoln. He built a finer 
house about two miles east of the city and, under the 
name of Fairview, it is still his abiding place. 

After the defeat of 1900 Mr. Bryan established the 
Commoner, a weekly newspaper that he still publishes 
in Lincoln. Demands upon his time increased after 
the second campaign and he has covered the country 
many times, filling platform engagements. In 1904, 
although not a candidate, he was still a conspicuous 
figure in the national campaign and his services as a 
speaker continued to be in great demand. 

Bryan's journey around the world, also given a sep- 
arate place in this little volume, attracted almost as 
much attention as would the travels of a ruler. To a 
marvelous extent he has kept in the "public eye." His 
movements, ever since the memorable year 1896, have 



BRYAN THE MAN 

been closely noted by multitudes, and two defeats and 
a Presidential contest in which he was not a candidate 
are now followed by one in which he is a force recog- 
nized by the entire Democratic party — beloved by 
many and, it must be admitted, feared by some who 
would check his onward movement if they could or 
dared. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896. 

The Presidential contest of 1896 has furnished the 
political novelists of the land with a rich field for the 
creation of fiction. On June 16, 1896, William J. 
Bryan sat at a reporter's table in the convention hall 
at St. Louis and recorded for the Omaha World-Herald 
the events which led up to the nomination of William 
McKinley for President of the United States. 

Early in July, Mr. Bryan, a delegate-at-large, ac- 
companied the Nebraska contingent to the Democratic 
national convention at Chicago. ''Keep Your Eye On 
Nebraska," was the adjuration on an immense placard 
fastened on one side of the car, an exhortation which, 
during the next campaign, was most faithfully obeyed. 
The series of events at Chicago surprised the entire 
nation. For, with one burst of impassioned eloquence, 
William J. Bryan transformed the convention into a 
mob of frenzied admirers. On the fifth ballot he was 
nominated for President of the United States. During 
the political battle that followed, Mr. Bryan traveled 
18,000 miles in a period of a hundred days. He de- 
livered '600 speeches and his hearers aggregated five 
millions of people. Each day he averaged 180 miles 
and his average daily audience has been estimated at 



30 BRYAN THE MAN 

50,000. He set a pace which has been exceeded by 
himself and which has been equaled by none other. 

Bryan's seat in the 1896 convention was contested 
by his political foes. Even his closest friends did not 
dream of honor for him except possibly as chairman 
of the convention, should the conservative forces 
within the party be defeated. Bryan belonged to the 
radical wing which championed the free coinage of 
silver. The first test of strength revealed the fact that 
the conservatives were outnumered. Led by David B. 
Hill, however, and other leaders of national fame, the 
fight was exciting and uncertain. Thousands packed 
the hall, listening intently to the orators. From the 
east came men who counseled conservatism; others, 
like Senator Tillman, indulged in caustic language 
and characterized Cleveland as the tool of Wall street. 

Perspiring, impatient and restless was the crowd 
William J. Bryan faced when he came forward to close 
the debate. There was a murmur of impatience at the 
opening sentences. This lasted but a few moments 
while the orator spoke the formal words of introduc- 
tion. Forceful, majestic, without the least perceptible 
effort, the voice rose, and for the first time during the 
convention the auditors enjoyed the comfort of hear- 
ing every word. 

To the vast concourse of people Bryan was a stran- 
ger. His party associates knew him as an eloquent 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 31 

and forceful orator. But he had never appeared on a 
national occasion. Before five minutes had elapsed, 
the galleries, the majority of the delegates and the 
partisans yielded to his spell. Wild cheering followed 
each dramatic pause. Then the audience seemed to 
become hypnotized. Massed on all sides, ranged row 
on row, in fascinated silence they listened, drinking in 
the eloquence. When Mr. Bryan told of the farmer 
behind the plow, the merchant in his store and the 
hardy pioneers who braved all dangers to make the 
desert blossom as the rose, something like a sob of 
admiration pervaded the convention hall. Thousands 
turned their heads in mute obedience when Mr. Bryan 
pointed to the west where lived the pioneers ''who 
rear their children near to nature's heart, where they 
can mingle their voices with the voices of the birds, 
out there where they have erected schoolhouses for the 
education of their young, churches where they praise 
their Creator, and cemeteries where rest the ashes of 
their dead." 

Next came the moment of magnificent defiance. 
With a natural pose which critics of oratory have pro- 
nounced inimitable, Mr. Bryan said in tones which 
sounded like well-measured thunder claps: 

''We have petitioned and our petitions have been 
scorned; we have entreated and our entreaties have 
been disregarded; we have begged and they have 



32 BRYAN THE MAN 

mocked when our calamity came. We beg no longer; 
we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy 
them." 

A roar of enraged defiance, growing constantly in 
volume, followed this climax. It was the voice of 
political revolution. No one attempted to check the 
wild confusion. The opposing delegates sat sullenly 
in their seats with downcast heads while delegation 
after delegation waved their standards at the orator in 
token of surrender. 

Not a moment beyond the natural pause did the 
orator wait. He did not glance to the chair in appeal 
for quiet. Nor did he allow the frantic thousands to 
waste his time. Mr. Bryan made a graceful, almost 
imperceptible gesture with his hand; his eyes, glow- 
ing with the indescribable light of the orator in ac- 
tion, also bade the multitudes be still. Mr. Bryan 
would speak again. More than that, he might say 
something during the confusion. Worse yet, he might 
stop speaking. The roar as of a Niagara rapidly de- 
creased in volume and there was scarce a ripple of 
sound when the orator proceeded again after a pause 
exactly dignified and natural. 

The convention had found its master. That square- 
shouldered man, with head thrown back and dark hair 
falling carelessly over a broad brow, exercised more 
authority than kings and potentates. He was dictator. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 33 

By the consent of the enthusiastic thousands he was 
leader of the party. The suffrage of his hearers had 
been proclaimed in a way which made opponents 
tremble. 

When the dignified yet affable man of thirty-six had 
concluded his oration with a second master-stroke of 
defiance, there was no thought of opposition to his 
will. A grand popular demonstration marked the con- 
clusion of his speech. About 165 delegates departed 
in stupefied calm, while the crazed partisans of Bryan 
surrounded his hotel and shattered the city's peace 
with wild uproar. 

East and west, north and south, flashed the news of 
Bryan's triumph. Unknown at noon, his name was 
heard in every hamlet before the setting of the sun. 
The impression of the man was indefinable and 
blurred, but the whole country knew that a matchless 
orator had set thousands wild. Under glaring head- 
lines were printed sentences from the speech. In- 
stinctively the partisans realized that some unknown 
and dreaded change had taken place. They foresaw 
a new condition of things, strange issues and unknown 
conflicts. In Chicago there was uncertainty; through- 
out all the land there was unrest. 

The selection of Mr. Bryan as the standard-bearer 
of his party was inevitable. The masses who heard his 
speech demanded it. The leaders who worked with 



34 BRYAN THE MAN 

him favored such a course. When the first ballot was 
taken he had an enviable following, and state after 
state? joined Nebraska until Mr. Bryan, after the fifth 
ballot showed two-thirds of the delegates in his favor, 
was nominated by unanimous vote. Another demon- 
stration, as violent and enthusiastic as the outburst 
which marked his speech, took place when his nomi- 
nation was announced. 

The news of the work of the convention caused an 
outburst of pride in Nebraska. For the first time in 
the history of the state one of its sons had been named 
for the office of Chief Executive. Moreover, it had 
been entirely unexpected. Mr. Bryan had gone to 
Chicago expecting to defend his right to a seat in the 
convention — perhaps unsuccesefully. Furthermore, the 
nomination came as the result of a personal triumph. 
Mr. Bryan had expended scarcely $100 in cash, this 
expenditure being made to defray the expenses of 
himself and Mrs. Bryan to Chicago and aid in paying 
for the headquarters of the Nebraska delegation. These 
facts, heralded from city to village, provoked applause 
the more intense and heartfelt because the approval 
was non-partisan. 

To the events in that convention leading up to the 
nomination of Mr. Bryan we shall refer but briefly. 
Richard P. Bland, of Missouri, who had fought so 
long and hard for free silver that he was called "Silver 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 35 

Dick" Bland, was easily the leading candidate for the 
Presidency when the convention began, although he 
did not have enough pledged votes to nominate. On 
the first ballot Mr. Bland received 235 votes; Mr. 
Bryan, 137; ex-Governor Horace Boies of Iowa, 67; 
Governor Claude Matthews of Indiana, 37; John R. 
McLean of Ohio, 54; Robert E. Pattison of Pennsyl- 
vania, 97; Senator J. C. S. Blackburn of Kentucky, 
82. In addition there were a number of scattered votes 
for ''favorite sons." 

On the second ballot Mr. Bryan received 197 votes 
and Mr. Bland 281. On the third ballot Bryan's vote 
was increased to 219 and Bland's to 291. Bryan had 
280 on the fourth ballot and Bland 241. The contest 
was settled on the fifth ballot, when Bryan received 
652 votes, or more than two-thirds of the number of 
votes in the convention. 

On the journey home from the Chicago convention 
Mr. and Mrs. Bryan entered the state first at Rulo. 
From Rulo to Lincoln, the trip was one continuous 
ovation. At Lincoln a non-partisan reception was 
held. 

After this pleasant prelude the campaign became 
violently vituperative. Mr. Bryan was assailed with 
unexampled ferocity by the eastern press. He under- 
took to combat this hostility by a campaign of oratory. 
For three months he journeyed east and west, resting 



36 BRYAN THE MAN 

little and sleeping scarcely at all. Newspaper corre- 
spondents followed him in droves. Mrs. Bryan ac- 
companied her hus'band during the greater part of the 
tour as his most trusted confidante and adviser. 

Mr. Bryan returned to his home, merely pale and 
tired, after such a campaign as no other man before 
or since has undertaken. Election day was spent 
mostly in sleep. Election night he slumbered without 
thought of the outcome. From time to time Mrs. 
Bryan aroused him and read important bulletins. 
From her expression Mr. Bryan declared he could dis- 
cern the import of the news before she began to read. 
Peace and calm followed weariness and earnest strug- 
gle. After hearing the preliminary reports, favorable 
to the opposition, Mr. Bryan sank into undisturbed 
slumber, calm, unruffled and unmoved. The fight 
afforded the joy of combat; defeat brought no terror. 

As soon as the result was definitely known, Mr. 
Bryan sent a telegram of congratulation to William 
McKinley at Canton, Ohio. 

"Senator Jones has just informed me that the re- 
turns indicate your election," wired the defeated 
leader, "and I hasten to extend my congratulations. 
We have submitted the issue to the American people 
and their will is law." 

Mr. Bryan's running mate in the campaign of 1896 
was Arthur Sewall, of Maine. The Silver party, in 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 37 

its convention that year, nominated Bryan and Sewall 
35 candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. 
The Popuhsts, at their convention in July, nominated 
Mr. Bryan for President and Thomas E. Watson of 
Georgia for Vice-President. The Nebraskan's name 
was therefore on three party tickets, and he had two 
running mates for the Vice-Presidency. The national 
committees of tlie three parties worked together for 
the success of the silver movement, which was of course 
the one important issue in that campaign. 

Democrats who did not favor the free coinage of 
silver held a convention in Indianapolis Sept. 2. Sen- 
ator John M. Palmer, of Illinois, was nominated fov 
the Presidency and General Simon E. Buckner, of 
Kentucky, for the Vice-Presidency. The campaign 
was marked by extreme vigor and earnestness. Party 
lines were thrown down in many instances and the 
Silver Eepublicans and Gold Democrats were alike 
called "bolters" by the members of their parent or- 
ganizations. The Republicans had endorsed the gold 
standard, the national ticket being composed of Wil- 
liam McKinley, of Ohio, and Garrett A. Hobart, of 
New Jersey. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1900. 

Long before the Democratic national convention 
met in Kansas City, July 4, 1900, it was admitted that 
Mr. Bryan would again be the nominee of the party 
for the Presidency. Previous to the convention a 
struggle had begun within the party, the Gold Demo- 
crats seeking to control the platform expression on the 
financial question. 

From his home in Lincoln Mr. Bryan sent a num- 
ber of clean-cut declarations of his views. Many Presi- 
dential candidates are as "silent as oysters" before a 
political convention. After the platform is adopted 
they are in full and tuneful accord with the sentiments 
expressed by the delegates, and any provision meets 
their approval provided it has been passed upon favor- 
ably by the convention majority. But Mr. Bryan has 
not been a silent candidate at any time or in any sense 
of the word. He is a platform fighter, even when his 
own interests might suggest only a pa.ssive interest. 

In June, 1900, Mr. Bryan announced his platform 
in an article in the North American Review. Richard 
L. Metcalfe, a delegate-at-large to the Kansas City con- 
vention, announced on July 1 that the party was to 
take a positive stand on the money question. 

This interview was authentic in every way and cor- 

38 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 39 

rcctly represented the views of the Presidential candi- 
date. And it quickly brought David B. Hill, of New 
York, to Lincoln. The New Yorker pleaded with 
Bryan to abandon the free silver issue, but his inter- 
cession availed nothing. In fact, it hastened the crisis, 
for Judge A. S. Tibbetts, of Lincoln, also a delegate- 
at-large, made the unequivocal statement that Bryan 
would not run on any platform that did not contain a 
specific declaration for the free coinage of silver. Un- 
less such an assertion was made, the convention would 
have to seek elsewhere for a candidate for President. 

Ex-Senator Hill organized a stubborn, clever fight, 
training his batteries on the resolutions committee. 
The margin was slender and for a time it seemed that 
there would be a majority and a minority report, with 
a fierce contest on the floor of the convention. Finally 
it was agreed that free silver should be endorsed, while 
"imperialism" should be declared the paramount issue 
of the campaign. The platform was read and adopted 
July 5, and Mr, Bryan was nominated. Adlai Steven- 
son, of Illinois, was named for Vice-President. Both 
candidates were endorsed by the Silver Republican 
party and Mr. Bryan was endorsed by the People's 
party. 

The Kansas City convention was remarkable on ac- 
count of the brilliant work done by the people of that 
place in providing a meeting place for the great gath- 



40 BRYAN THE MAN 

ering. Just three months before the date fixed for the 
convention the Kansas City Convention hall was to- 
tally destroyed by fire. The people were stunned for 
a short time, but their true spirit soon asserted itself 
and the work of raising money for a new hall was 
begun. The required amount was subscribed and the 
hall was sufficiently near completion to permit its use 
on the day fixed by the national convention before the 
fire. 

When Mr. Bryan's name was mentioned in the Kan- 
sas City convention the demonstration exceeded in up- 
roar and duration all the noise-making records of deh- 
gate bodies. John Martin, of St. Louis, the veteran 
sergeant-at-arms, originated a clever plan to insure 
harmony and effective results in the "rooting." A 
huge flag had been rolled behind the speaker's ros- 
trum. This was so arranged that a slash of a knife 
severed a rope and allowed the flag to descend when- 
ever Mr. Martin wanted to touch off the vocal fire- 
works. Throughout the hall were stationed captains 
of squads. These were well instructed, and were armed 
with flags. 

When the name of William J. Bryan was mentioned 
Mr. Martin made a deft movement with his knife. 
The big flag slowly unrolled. At the same instant the 
captains of the hosts of pandemonium became indus- 
trious. Flags were quickly distributed to all the dele- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 41 

gates. Bugles, claquers and all the noise-making 
devices to be found in Kansas City were used. In- 
creasing all the while, the disorder swelled until Mar- 
tin detected the "psychological moment." Then the 
big flag was partially rolled up and allowed to drop 
again, the noise captains gave their proper signals and 
the confusion ceased as suddenly as it had begun. 

At Indianapolis, IMr. Bryan was notified of his sec- 
ond nomination for the Presidency on August 8, 1900. 
It has been estimated that more than 50,000 persons 
listened to his speech of acceptance. 

The campaign of 1900 was peculiarly quiet. Most 
of the people were listless, and little interest was taken 
in political affairs. Mr. Bryan made several trips over 
the country and delivered many addresses, both at 
home and on the road. A regiment of correspond- 
ents inhabited Lincoln during that campaign, and 
these newspaper workers met Mr. Bryan several times 
a day in the living room of the D street home, this 
being three years before he moved to his country home, 
east of the city. Robert Rose was Mr. Bryan's secre- 
tary during the 1900 campaign, and at all times the 
new^spaper men were accorded the highest courtesy. 

On election day the Presidential candidate, weary 
from long, hard work, passed most of the time in his 
own room, much of it in sleep. Except for the time 
required to cast his ballot, he remained in his chamber 



42 BRYAN THE MAN 

practically throughout the day. Election returns were 
flashed to the library of the Bryan home, and at about 
9:30 in the evening it became known that William 
McKinley had been elected President and that Bryan 
had lost. The defeated candidate was aroused from 
his slumber and given a number of bulletins. He 
smiled and remarked that he would meet the "news- 
paper boys." 

About 11 o'clock that night, Mr. Bryan, pale but 
smiling, his eyes glowing with good will and friend- 
ship, entered the parlor where the newspaper repre- 
sentatives were working. One by one the writers who 
had worked with him throughout the campaign ap- 
proached him. The twice-defeated leader had a kind 
word, a joke or an epigram for each one. 

Remarking that he needed more sleep, Mr, Bryan 
bade a final good night to the "boys" and went up- 
stairs, stepping with the briskness and evidently feel- 
ing the elation of a man who had narrowly eluded a 
heavy burden. 

And the newspaper workers departed, all of them 
with sorrow and regret in their hearts. For they had 
campaigned with the "Peerless leader," they had lived 
with him in hotels and railway coaches and way sta- 
tions, and they loved this man who fought with the 
intensity of the tiger, who met vituperation with 
kindly repartee and who awoke from dreamless slum- 
ber to face defeat with a smile. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE 1904 CONVENTION. 

Battling for what he believed to be right, William 
J. Bryan was the central figure of the St. Louis con- 
vention which nominated Judge Alton B. Parker in 
1904. There he compelled the Parker element to ac- 
cept his revision of the platform. Mr. Bryan did not 
desire or seek a nomination at the St. Louis conven- 
tion. He maintained, however, his active interest in 
party affairs, and when opportunity presented itself, 
he changed the tariff, trust and corporation planks of 
the platform to conform to his radical views. 

John Sharp Williams of Mississippi, Democratic 
le-ader of the house of representatives, was made tem- 
porary chairman of the convention. He had brought 
a rough draft of the platform adopted in his own state 
and this he expanded to apply to national issues. The 
committee on resolutions referred the drafting of the 
platform to a sub-committee of ten members. This 
body, after careful and exacting work, produced a 
document which everyone supposed would be accepted 
without change. But when this draft came into the 
hands of the main committee, much dissatisfaction 
was expressed. For a day and a night the document 
was subjected to vigorous criticism. Bryan took the 
lead and was brilliantly successful. 

43 



44 BRYAN THE MAN 

In 'Tarty Leaders of the Time," Charles Willis 
Thompson, one of the brilliant Washington corre- 
spondents at the St. Louis convention, describes Bryan 
as follows: 

"Bryan in a fight is an interesting sight to see. He 
never loses his temper, never abates a jot of his grip 
on that flowing good humor of his, and never loses 
an atom of his self-control. Yet he differs in aspect 
from the politician who enters a fight with the 'gam- 
bler's eye.' .... This steady, calm stolidity is ut- 
terly apart from Bryan's calmness. He is the picture 
of activity and life. His eyes gleam with the joy of 
fighting, he is in his element; he does not even lose 
or conceal his keen perception of the ludicrous, even 
when the joke is on himself 

"He was in the thick of every fight; in the Com- 
mittee on Resolutions, in the fight over credentials. 
He was all alone, and so he could not miss a single 
fight; he had no lieutenant to whom to turn the job 
over. He flashed from one room where a fight had 
just been completed, to another, there to carry on the 

next one. Of course he did not sleep He 

did not have over an hour's sleep from the day the 
convention met on the morning of July 6, to the 
morning of July 9, when Parker was nominated. 

The other fighters could get rest, but the 

single-handed fighter could not." 



PROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 45 

But through Bryan's influence the money plank 
was wholly "compromised out" of the resolutions. The 
tired convention finally adopted this much-changed 
platform in a perfunctory manner, and Judge Parker 
was nominated on the first ballot. Then a spirited tele- 
gram from Judge Parker took the convention by sur- 
prise. He announced himself as an ardent supporter 
of the gold standard. A determined fight followed 
on the floor of the convention, and Mr, Bryan, threat- 
ened with an attack of pneumonia, but hastily called 
from his bed by his adherents, made a speech which 
many declare was his masterpiece. Earnestly he chal- 
lenged the convention to exprass its true sentiments. 
If the delegates espoused the gold standard, let it be 
so declared. He urged honesty and straightforward- 
ness rather than expediency. 

"Down the aisle came Bryan," wTote Mr. Thomp- 
son, an eye-witness of this scene, "white-faced and 
ghastly, breathing with difficulty, liLs brows covered 
with sweat. On his sick-bed he had heard the news, 
had seen his last chance to turn defeat into victory, 
had disobeyed his physician, had thrown up his plans 
for a journey in search of rest, and had come with 
difficulty into the hall to make his last fight, 

"He took his stand upon the platform, and there, 
still single-handed, fought all night long his desper- 
ate battle. Defeated at one point, he turned to an- 



46 BRYAN THE MAN 

other. Again and again he all but won. Those stand- 
ing near him could see with what an effort he spoke, 
how the perspiration started from his brow at every 
movement ; yet he was as thoroughly master of himself 

as at any time in his life He never lost his 

ready courtesy, his good-humor, his thorough self- 
control. 

"And after it was all over, and Bryan had lost, he 
went to his hotel and fell again into that bed of which 
he had seen so little for a week. For a man of such 
superb physique it does not take long to recover from 
things that would kill another; and after a month of 
recuperation and medical treatment, Bryan was on 
the stump again, fighting for the Democratic ticket 
and laying his plans for renewing the battle for his 
principles after the election." 

First and foremost, Mr. Bryan is a positive per- 
sonality. He is his own platform and he is greater 
than any mere opinons he may happen to hold upon 
passing questions. But express his opinions he will, 
no matter what the cost. 

A delegate to the Republican convention at Chicago 
stopped at the St. Louis convention. For the Review 
of Reviews he wrote a sarcastic account of the pro- 
ceedings. Concerning the Sage of Fairview he said: 

"The one strong, commanding personality of the 
Democratic convention, in my judgment, was, 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 47 

strangely enough, William J, Bryan of Nebraska. No 
auditor in the whole convention could have been more 
unsympathetic with his personality than the writer; 
yet he is bound to say that he came away from St. Louis 
with a greatly heightened opinion of Mr. Bryan's 
mind and character, and with a new respect for his 
sincerity and courage. Mr. Bryan made a strong, able 
and persistent fight for the principles that he believed 
in. He was honest with the convention and he wished 
the convention to be honest with the people." 

The result of the 1904 campaign was an overwhelm- 
ing victory for the Eepublicans, and a number of 
writers predicted Bryan's swift descent into oblivion. 
They declared he would be enmeshed in obscurity as 
soon as the convention closed. One Chicago newspa- 
per man alluded to Mr. Bryan's speech at St. Louis as 
his "swan-song." 

Throughout the campaign Mr. Bryan supported the 
Democratic ticket, and Judge Parker afterward admit- 
ted that the work of the Nebraskan was the most vital- 
izing that was done. Besides his many speeches, his 
editorials in the Commoner criticised the acts of the 
Republicans. But Bryan was frank and outspoken 
when it came to the issues on which he had decided 
opinions, even to the point of criticising members of 
his own party. 

As soon as the campaign was over, Mr. Bryan in 



48 BRYAN THE MAN 

editorials, magazine articles and in private conversa- 
tion, urged the Democracy of the country to forsake 
the paths of so-called conservatism and to fight the 
battles of the people. In a keen, incisive analysis of 
the election returns, in the Outlook of December 10, 
1904, he declared that the party was in a position to 
consider the moral issues presented by the pending 
problems. In regard to the future of the party, he 
said: 

"No proposition is better supported by history than 
that 'righteousness exalteth a nation,' and it is as true 
of a party as of a nation. In fact, no one can form 
an accurate judgment upon the man or individual 
groups of men who does not accept as his major 
premise that truth rests upon justice, and is omnip- 
otent. Just in so far as an individual follows this 
doctrine, he succeeds. There is no other measure of 
success. In proportion as he departs from this doc- 
trine he fails. If for a time he seems to prosper, his 
prosperity is only apparent, for no amount of wealth 
or honor can compensate for the doing of an injustice; 
and history deals with men, with parties and with na- 
tions according to one inexorable law — 'The wages of 
sin is death.' 

"If I were going to coin a new proverb to fit this 
case, it would run like this: 'Envy not the prosperity 
of the evil-doer. It cannot last.' 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 49 

"When injustice is done by a large group or by in- 
direction, it is more difficult to trace the responsibility, 
and punishment may be more slow, but the penalty is 
no less sure. The man who transgresses the laws of na- 
ture may escape punishment for a year or for a de- 
cade, but the relation between the cause and the effect, 
however extended, is not broken. In the case of a na- 
tion a century may elapse between the sowing of the 
wind and the reaping of the whirlwind, but the one 
follows the other." 



CHAPTER \'I. 

7 HZ CAMPAIGN OF 1908. 

Mr. Bryan'i strength and prominence in the politi- 
cal campaign of 19<3S were the inevitable result of the 
dismal showing made by the opposing element of his 
party in the election of 1904, when Alton Brooks Par- 
ker, of New York, was overwhelmingly defeated by 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

The nomination of Judge Parker marked a rerum 
of the Demi^cratic party to a so-called conservatism, 
and the opponents of the Bryan faction believed that 
they had the Xebraskan "downed" for keeps. The 
1904 Democratic platform was a compromise, although 
it represented a victory for Bryan in view of the fact 
that Judge Parker was a pronounced gold standard 
man and so declared himself just after he had received 
the nomination. 

Having been twice defeated for the Presidency, and 
having invited no consideration as a candidate in 
1904. it looked at that time as though Bryan might 
indeed, be ••down and out," and tbat the faction led 
by David Bennett Hill and others would regain com- 
plete control of the organization. 

But those who counted the Xebraskan politically 
dead had not yet come to know their man. His bat- 
tle against the insertion of a gold plank in the 1904 

50 



FROM A REPUBLICAN \TEWPOrN'T. 51 

platform was one of the great events of lii3 career, and 
is elsewhere described. Notwithstanding this victory, 
there were many who boasted that '"Bryanism" had 
been killed in the Democratic party; that the nomina- 
tion of Parker, a gold man, even on a platform that 
"straddled" a great question, was the complete undo- 
ing of the Xebraskan, and that in the councils of the 
organization he would never be heard again. 

How far from the line of accuracy such forecasts 
were, the four years succeeding the campaign of 1904 
have plainly shown. Mr. Bmin continued to be a 
platform favorite throughout the country. His trip 
around the world, followed by its notable home-coming 
receptions, showed that he was still living in the hearts 
of the Democrats of the country. In a word, Bryan, 
instead of being sidetracked as a result of the Parker 
campaign, which indeed made a miserable showing 
for Democracy when pitted against the strength and 
popularity of Roosevelt, grew stronger and stronger as 
the years passed. 

The Democrats had twice tried the radical man and 
had failed. Then they had returned to the conserva- 
tive, with results far more disastrous than they had 
known before. Although the free silver issue was well 
buried, the Democratic party, following the trium- 
phant election of Roosevelt, believed that it would 
have to turn back to the Brvan creed if it would re- 



52 BRYAN THE MAN 

tain a hold upon popular favor — or, to speak more ac- 
curately, if it would obtain such a hold. 

And so Bryan, after two defeats and despite a cam- 
paign in which he w^as considered only as a supporter 
of the ticket, continued to grow. 

In the years between Parker's defeat and 1908 a 
"wave of reform" swept over the country. It might 
be described as the natural result of a period in which 
the people, prosperous and little worried over affairs 
of state, found that they had time to devote to the 
study of government and the detection of wrong. 

The result was that in the period of our greatest na- 
tional prosperity the country saw the most sweeping re- 
form movement that it had ever known. Men who 
had been indifferent to party and governmental con- 
ditions, who had permitted a few leaders to do all of 
their political thinking for them, discovered that they 
were able to think and do for themselves. Therefore, 
in both of the great parties, there arose a stronger 
spirit of radicalism. 

In the Republican party the attacks made upon the 
immense financial interests were led by President 
Roosevelt, and he quickly became the most popular 
executive the nation has ever had. This is said with 
full regard for the great love in which McKinley and 
Lincoln and other leaders had been held. 

Roosevelt, in a time when hitherto inactive men 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 53 

were paying attention to politics, became to the Re- 
publicans what Bryan had for years been to the Demo- 
crats, and when the first prophecies for the campaign 
of 1908 were heard the names of Roo.sevelt and Bryan 
were mentioned as the logical leaders of their respective 
organizations. 

But Roosevelt was soon out of the list of possibilities, 
for he announced that under no circumstances would 
he accept ronomination. Mr. Bryan, while not placing 
himself in the attitude of a seeker, said that if his 
party called him to be its leader in another national 
campaign he would not refuse to heed the call. The 
lines for the contest shaped themselves accordingly, 
with Bryan as the man most talked about among the 
Democrats and with Secretary Taft, Roosevelt's choice, 
and pledged to the Roosevelt policies, leading all the 
others in the race for Republican preferment. 

In the administration of President Roosevelt Bryan 
found much to commend. During Roosevelt's first 
period of service as President, it being the unexpired 
portion of the beloved McKinley's second term, he at- 
tempted little in the way of radical reform. But after 
he had been chosen President by the people, Roose- 
velt started upon an official career that was both spec- 
tacular and productive of marvelous results. He boldly 
invaded precincts where others had feared to go and 
ruthlessly exposed corruption in high places. He 



54 BRYAN THE MAN 

called some of the country's most influential men to 
account, instituted suits for the dissolution of great 
trade combinations, preached the doctrine of the 
"square deal" for all, and in a hundred ways won 
the approval of the American public, which was in a 
mood to applaud the acts of a fearless man. 

In much of this work Roosevelt had the support and 
encouragement of Bryan, although the Nebraskan did 
not hesitate to offer criticism upon occasion. The 
popularity of both men grew and Parker and his east- 
ern allies were almost forgotten. The public gave 
credit to both Roosevelt and Bryan for honesty of pur- 
pose, Roosevelt having the stronger hold, of course, 
because of the fact that he had accomplished some- 
thing, while Bryan had lacked opportunity for carry- 
ing his theories into effect. 

The western and southern states, when they began 
to hold their conventions for the election of delegates 
to the national convention in Denver in July, 1908, 
were enthusiastic in their support of Bryan, and his 
strength was quickly manifestd. In the east a move- 
ment for a ''conservative" candidate was started, with 
Governor Johnson, of Minnesota, as the man chosen 
to receive the support of uninstructed delegates in the 
event Bryan failed to have two-thirds of the conven- 
tion votes on the first ballot. 

But in spite of the Johnson movement Bryan's 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 55 

chances grew brighter as convention day drew near, 
and the sure place held by him in the affections of his 
party was apparent even to those who were most anx- 
ious to defeat him. 

"We'll have to let the Republicans whip him the 
third time," they said, "and perhaps when 1912 comes 
our party will have pulled itself together sufficiently 
to permit the nomination of a candidate who is neither 
Bryan nor of the Bryan persuasion." 

Whether or not this argument, manufactured with- 
in the ranks of the minor and dissatisfied portion of 
Democracy, is well founded the near future will tell. 

One of the few sensational incidents of the cam- 
paign of 1908, previous to the nomination of candi- 
dates, was the effort of certain eastern Democrats to 
discredit Mr. Bryan with his party, and thus prevent 
his nomination at Denver, by publishing a story to the 
effect that the sum of $20,000 had been sent to the 
state of Nebraska for use during the campaign of 
1904. The supposed purpose in this was to leave the 
impression that Bryan had known about this contri- 
bution to the campaign fund and that he had profited 
from it. It was alleged that T. F. Ryan, of New York, 
gave this money. 

The New York World, which printed the story, 
charged first that Bryan's brother-in-law, T. S. Allen, 
of Lincoln, chairman of the Democratic state commit- 



56 BRYAN THE MAN 

tee of Nebraska, had a conference with Mr. Sheehan, 
an eastern Democrat, in 1904 in regard to campaign 
funds; second, that Mr. Sheehan, as Mr. Ryan's attor- 
ney, secured from Mr. Ryan $20,000 for political uses 
in Nebraska; third, that he made the contribution to 
secure Mr. Bryan's unqualified support of Judge Par- 
ker; fourth, that to disguise the source of the 
contribution Mr. Ryan gave his check to Mr. Sheehan 
and that Sheehan gave his check to Allen. 

We print Mr. Bryan's reply to these charges merely 
for the purpose of showing how he handles a subject 
when he is the one attacked. The newspapers of the 
country, Republican as well as Democratic, agreed in 
a declaration that Mr. Bryan had been unjustly ac- 
cused. All united in the belief that Bryan was an 
honest man and that if money from improper sources 
had been used he knew nothing about it. His reply 
was as follows; 

"Mr. Allen says that he never saw either Mr. Shee- 
han or Mr. Ryan, and I have no reason to doubt his 
word. If Mr. Ryan contributed to the Nebraska cam- 
paign it was not with my knowledge or consent. 
While I had but a remote personal interest in the 
Nebraska campaign that year, I am interested in Ne- 
braska politics and am also interested in national poli- 
tics, and I am not willing to be, in the slighest degree, 
obligated to any favor-seeking corporation. If, there- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 57 

fore, the World will secure from either Mr. Sheehan 
or Mr. Ryan a statement to prove, in any other way, 
that Mr. Ryan gave to Mr. Sheehan, to any one else, 
or to the national committee any sum whatever, with 
the understanding that that sum would be used in the 
Nebraska campaign, I shall see that the amount is 
returned to Mr. Ryan. 

"As to the charge that my support of Judge Parker 
was purchased, I need only to say that I announced 
my support of Judge Parker immediately after the 
St. Louis convention, and that support was open and 
unqualified from the convention until the polls closed. 
I had opposed his nomination, but he had no more 
loyal supporter during the campaign. I was in cor- 
respondence with him, and both on the stump and 
with my pen rendered all the assistance I could." 

On the day following the publication of Mr. Bryan's 
reply, publicity was given to a letter written by Shee- 
han to Bryan just after the World's charges appeared. 
Mr. Sheehan said: 

"I have read the article published in the New York 
World on May 30 last relating to campaign expendi- 
tures in the state of Nebraska in 1904. In view of the 
fact that I was chairman of the executive committee 
of the Democratic national committee in that year, 
permit me to say that whatever money was sent to 
the state of Nebraska was taken from the general 



58 BRYAN THE MAN 

fund, which money was made up of voluntary contri- 
butions from many persons There was not 

the slightest suggestion at the time from anybody that 
you had any knowledge on the subject or that knowl- 
edge to the transaction was to be brought home to 
you." 

This practically closed the incident so far as Mr. 
Bryan was concerned, although it soon became mani- 
fest that some of the Nebraska Democrats were to be 
vigorously assailed and the matter made a feature of 
the 1908 campaign in that state. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BRYANS IN THE OLD WORLD. 

In 1905 Mr. Bryan acted upon a determination, 
formed long before, to see the countries of the old 
world, study their forms of government, become ac- 
quainted with their people and gather such informa- 
tion as might be of value to him in his work as an 
editor, lecturer and political leader. He had made a 
short trip to Europe in 1902. 

On September 27, 1905, the Bryan family sailed 
from San Francisco. In the party were Mr. and Mrs. 
Bryan and two of their children, William J., Jr., and 
Grace. While most the trip undertaken by the Bry- 
ans was in the North Temperate zone, they were be- 
low the Equator a few days in Java and above the 
Arctic Circle in Norway. Mr. Bryan's proposed trip 
to Australia and New Zealand, which was to have been 
a part of this journey, was postponed to another time. 

The experiences of the Bryan family in foreign 
lands were related by the head of the family in a 
series of letters to American newspapers, one being 
published each week for a year. After Mr. Bryan's 
return he prepared "The Old World and Its Waj^s," 
a fine volume containing his impressions of the things 
he saw and heard on his travels. To this book the 

59 



60 BRYAN THE MAN 

authors are indebted for much of the information 
contained in the present chapter. 

The Bryans first went to Hawaii, where they were 
enthusiastically received. They then proceeded to 
Japan, and Mr. Bryan says they were fortunate in the 
time of their arrival, Baron Komura, the peace com- 
missioner, having returned two days after they 
reached the country, the naval review celebrating the 
new Anglo-Japanese alliance being celebrated a week 
later and the reception to Admiral Togo being another 
notable incident. The Bryans were cordially received 
wherever they went in Japan, and their visit to that 
country appears to have been one of the most enjoy- 
able parts of their journey. 

Korea, China and the Philippines were next visited 
in turn, and in the islands of the Pacific ]\Ir. Bryan 
gave particular attention to the problems growing 
out of American possession. As the question of ''im- 
perialism" was made one of the paramount issues in 
the Bryan campaign of 1900, his views regarding the 
future of the Filipinos will not be out of place in this 
connection : 

"Our nation is unfitted by history and by tradition 
to exploit the tropical countries according to the 
methods employed by the monarchies of Europe. To 
hold the people in subjection requires a large military 
expenditure. If we were to attempt to make our own 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 61 

people bear such a burden, they would soon protest. 
If we were to make the Filipinos bear it, it would 
cru^h them. The Filipinos would resist such a policy, 
if employed by us, more bitterly than if it were em- 
ployed by a European country, because they have 
learned from us the lessons of liberty. Subject peo- 
ples are not willing laborers, and our country would 
not endorse a system of compulsory labor. Education, 
too, is inconsistent with a permanent colonial system 
and cannot be carried far without danger to the ruling 
power. 

"We must choose, therefore, between two policies, 
and the sooner the choice is made, the better. As we 
cannot adopt the European policy without a radical 
departure from our ideals, and ultimately from our 
form of government at home, we are virtually forced 
to adopt a plan distinctly American — a plan in which 
advice, example and helpfulness shall be employed as 
means of reaching the native heart. 

"Some of the European nations have been content 
to seize land and develop it with European capital and 
Chinese labor. Our plan must be to develop the na- 
tives themselves by showing them better methods and 
by opening before them a wider horizon." 

Mr. Bryan believes in early independence and self- 
government for the ChrLstian Filipinos living in the 
north of the islands. "While the work of establish- 



62 BRYAN THE MAN 

ing a stable government among the Moros is a more 
difficult one and will proceed more slowly," he says, 
"the same principles should govern it. Even among 
the Moros I believe it is possible to introduce Amer- 
ican ideas. While the Moros are a fierce people and 
accustomed to bloodshed, they have enough good qual- 
ities to show the possibility of improvement." 

From the Philippines the Bryans went to Java, In- 
dia, Burma, the Holy Land, Turkey, Hungary and 
Austria-Hungary. Their course then took them to 
Russia, where Mr. Bryan was received, as he had been 
received elsewhere, with marked attention. He at- 
tended two sessions of the Duma and was cordially 
greeted by the representatives of all classes. Mr. 
Bryan's opinion of Russia, written at that time, may 
well be noted in this connection: 

"Russia is not decaying," he declared. "She has 
extent of territory, abundant natural resources and an 
immense population. That Russia has a great future 
is not open to doubt. What experience she may pass 
through before she emerges a free, self-governing and 
prosperous nation no one is wise enough to foresee, 
but the people who have sacrificed as much for liberty 
as have the Russian patriots have in them the material 
of which mighty nations are made." 

The Bryan party visited the other countries of Eu- 
rape, and their receptions were uniformly courteous 



PROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 63 

and enthusiastic. The members of the family met 
crowned heads, and Mr. Brj-'an addressed many large 
audiences during his trip abroad. 

Concerning his visit at the home of Count Leo Tol- 
stoy, the "intellectual giant of Russia," Mr. Bryan 
says : 

"I had intended remaining only a few hours, but 
his welcome was so cordial that my stay was pro- 
longed until near midnight. Count Tolstoy is now 
about 76 years old, and while he shows the advance 
of years he is still full of mental vigor and retains 
much of his physical strength. 

"The room which I occupied was the one used by 
the count as a study in his younger days, and I was 
shown a ring in the ceiling from which, at the age 
of 48, he planned to hang himself — a plan from 
which he was turned by the resolve to change the man- 
ner and purpose of his life. 

"As is well known. Count Tolstoy is a member of 
the Russian nobility and for nearly fifty years led the 
life of a nobleman. He sounded all the 'depths and 
shoals of honor' in the literary and social world. He 
realized all that one could wish or expect in these 
lines, but found that success did not satisfy the crav- 
ings of the inner man. While he was meditating upon 
what he had come to regard as a wasted life, a change 
came over him, and with a faith that has never faltered 



64 BRYAN THE MAN 

he turned about and entered upon a career that has 
been unique in history. He donned the simple garb 
of the peasant and, living frugally, has devoted him- 
self to philosophy and unremunerative work — that is, 
unremunerative from a financial standpoint, although 
he declares that it has brought him more genuine en- 
joyment than he ever knew before." 

Mr. Bryan's return to the United States after his 
long trip abroad was marked by great receptions and 
cordial greetings. In New York he was welcomed by 
a delegation of "home folks" from Nebraska, who es- 
corted him to Lincoln, his home city, where a mon- 
ster reception was given in his honor. Thousands of 
people were massed in the state house square on the 
evenmg of his arrival in Lincoln, and after a parade 
in which representatives of all political parties took 
part, Mr. Bryan addressed the immense throng from 
the balcony of the capitol building. This display of 
cordiality on the part of his neighbors was no doubt 
one of the satisfying experiences of his eventful ca- 
reer. 

In New York, also, there was a formal reception, 
the plans being carried out on a large scale. Mr. 
Bryan addressed a huge audience in Madison Square 
Garden and there was a parade that holds a place al- 
most unique in the history of this country, all of it 
being done in honor of one who was not then in pub- 







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^HHH^ ' ~i*'!A«H|I|^K 


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^^^^c^ 






El i 

■i 




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'XH^H^i 


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~^IH 


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FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 65 

lie life and whose highest official position had been 
that of Congressman. 

After a round of receptions, banquets and other 
events prepared for him, Mr. Bryan settled back to 
something of routine, if there has been such in his 
life, and devoted his time to the lecture platform, to 
his newspaper and, in the few hours he could find for 
repose and study, to the pleasures that were to be had 
in his Fairview home. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE HOME-COMING IN 1906. 

When William J. Bryan reached New York City on 
his return from Europe, August 29, 1906, he was ac- 
corded such a greeting as has been tendered to no 
other American citizen not in an official capacity. 
His welcome on the Atlantic coast was in marked con- 
trast to his departure from the Pacific side a year 
before. Then he was practically ignored. Not a half 
dozen people appeared on the San Francisco dock to 
bid the Bryans "bon voyage." The only demonstra- 
tion in his honor was a quiet reception given by the 
San Francisco Press club. 

On his return the arrangements for his reception 
had been made on a national scale. The railroads all 
over the country had offered special excursion rates to 
New York and the crowds poured in by train-loads. 
The Democratic state organizations throughout the 
country had passed resolutions welcoming Bryan 
home, and had declared themselves for his nomination 
in 1908. Nearly a thousand leading men of the 
United States had been invited to platform seats in 
Madison Square Garden, where Mr. Bryan was to 
make his great speech. The general opinion seems to 
be that if the election could have been held at the 
time of his arrival, before he had had time to make a 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 67 

single speech, Mr. Bryan would have carried the coun- 
try by a decided majority. 

But after his speech, which made the country gasp, 
sentiment cooled and discord became apparent. He 
spoke eloquently for nearly an hour and a half and 
he devoted only about four minutes to his declaration 
that in his opinion the general Government would 
some day be obliged to assume ownership of the vari- 
ous railway lines of the country. 

There can be no doubt that Mr. Bryan fully realized 
the chances he was taking in thus expressing his opin- 
ions. Senator Bailey, of Texas, in some way got an 
inkling of the Nebraskan's determination to declare 
himself in favor of ultimate government ownership, 
and he labored earnestly up to the very moment of the 
beginning of the speech, doing everything in his 
power to induce Mv. Bryan just to keep still on this 
one topic. But he begged, he pleaded, he adjured, in 
vain. The only concession the speaker would make 
was to express his views as his own private opinion 
and not to commit his party to this issue. This ac- 
tion on Mr. Bryan's part is a striking exemplification 
of his whole aim in life as expressed to Mr. Hayne 
Davis while in attendance at the London Peace Con- 
ference shortly before he sailed for home. Mr. Davis 
had spoken to him of the likelihood of his being the 



68 BRYAN THE MAN 

next President of the United States. In reply, Mr. 
Brj'^an said slowly and most earnestly: 

"Mr, Davis, I am not sure that it is for me to be 
President. I have to antagonize established errors so 
constantly that I sometimes think a man should be 
at. Washington, even in case of Democratic success, 
who has not been compelled to fight so incessantly. 
But, in addition to this, if I think of how my actions 
are going to affect my chances of election to office, or 
even the party's chances of success, I lo.se my liberty. 
I don't know that the Presidency will ever be my 
proper place. I do know that the advocacy of what 
I consider right is always my proper place. So I have 
put the question of election to office out of my mind, 
and claim for myself the liberty of advocating my 
ideas of what I think right. If the Presidency comes 
on that basis, well and good. If not, I have fulfilled 
my function among my fellow-men." 

Mr. Bryan's ability to stand inflexibly for a prin- 
ciple in the face of unlimited opposition, his superb 
superiority • to clamor, have often been shown, but 
perhaps no more pointedly than in regard to this Mad- 
ison Square Garden speech of 1906. The revulsion 
of his party was quick and decided, but Mr. Bryan 
has immovably stood his ground. 

It was a valuable year that Mr. Bryan spent abroad 
previous to his spectacular home-coming. It has 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 69 

given him the broader, world-view of affairs which is 
needed by every public man. The Bryans traveled 
quietly and uno,stentatiously, just as thousands of 
American citizens do every year. They took with 
them only the ordinary passports from the State de- 
partment, and the honors heaped upon them every- 
where were not of their seeking. They chose, when 
possible, comfortable but economical hotels, and auto- 
mobiles, steam yachts and private cars were not in 
their scheme of progress. They had not the faintest 
expectation of being lionized and feted, as they were, 
but it v/as said of him that he ''carried Europe by a 
large majority." He certainly represented the Amer- 
ican people in a creditable manner during his travels. 

Staid and dignified New York was surprised at the 
reception given William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, by 
the "Home Folks," when the incoming liner, the 
Prinzess Irene, entered the harbor. Mayor Dahlman, 
of Omaha, led a crowd of 150 enthusiastic Nebras- 
kans, who had journed by special train to New York 
City to greet the returning traveler. 

The arrangements made by the New York commit- 
tee did not exactly appeal to the Nebraskans. Tele- 
grams were exchanged with President Roosevelt, and 
on the afternoon of August 29 the "Home Folks," in 
the Eugene F. Moran and the Julia C. Moran, the two 
fastest tugs on the bay, sped over the water to give 



70 BRYAN THE MAN 

Mr. Bryan the surprise of his life. Permission had 
been secured from the President and they were pre- 
pared to take Mr. and Mrs. Bryan from the Prinzess 
Irene. 

"We are Nebraska boys" echoed over the water, 150 
voices barking out the defiant words. Bryan, all un- 
conscious of the "trouble," stood at the rail of the 
vessel with his family, all straining their eyes sliore- 
ward. When the two tugs loomed in sight and he 

heard the wild refrain, "So what do we care" 

(this sentence of the song had been carefully edited 
on account of Mr. Bryan's well-known preferences), 
he "tumbled" in a moment. The liner was not 
equipped with wireless telegraphy. The plans of the 
excursionists had been well kept from Mr. Bryan and 
he was taken completely off his guard. 
. The two tugs began to maneuver for position. Cap- 
tain Buchanan, of the police boat Patrol, told the Ne- 
braskans to keep away and not disturb the liner. 
Other plans had been made, however, and the captain 
was not taken into the confidence of the visitors. The 
mini, the yacht of E. H. Goltra, a St. Louis friend 
and old schoolmate of IMr. Bryan, beat the tugs out 
and put Mayor Brown, of Lincoln, and Lewis Nixon 
aboard the vessel. Then Dahlman's tug ran up to 
the liner and the Nebraskans turned loose volleys of 



l^ROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 71 

wild yells which alarmed the denizens of Staten 
Island. 

For the face of William J. Bryan, bronzed with the 
suns of many climes, was beaming at the "Home 
Folks" from the vessel's rail. For once in his life the 
Commoner was incapable of speech. The yelling of 
the Nebraskans, however, atoned for any lack of words 
on his part. 

"We are, we are, we are, we are the Nebraska boys," 
choinised the voices. That settled it. The tug rose 
on a gigantic swell and William J. Bryan made a 
flying leap for the deck of the little boat and landed 
among his friends. Mrs. Bryan was assisted to the 
deck of the tug a moment later. There were frantic 
hand-clasps, shouts of congratulation and lusty cheer- 
ing. Passengers on the ocean greyhound caught the 
spirit of the wild and frenzied welcome and cheered 
with all their might. 

After Mr. Bryan had shaken hands all around on 
the one Moran boat, he stepped over to the other tug 
and continued the ceremony of greeting his friends. 
Meanwhile Mayor Dahlman, a former cowboy, had 
braced himself for a "roping" feat. As soon as he got 
a good chance to swing his lariat, the rope shot 
through the air and landed gracefully over Mr. Bry- 
an's shoulders. Mayor Dahlman drew in the slack 
and Mr. Bryan was roped good and hard. 



72 BRYAN THE MAN 

Mr. Bryan seemed to enjoy the roping incident 
quite as much as the others. A member of the party 
explained the kidnapping plan, and promised to give 
it up if Mr. Bryan would make a speech, 

"I am very proud of my Nebraska friends," said 
Mr. Bryan. "Nebraska is the best state in the Union. 
Lincoln is the best city in Nebraska and Fairview is 
even better than Lincoln. I was going out there to 
see you, but you have come here to see me, and 
you've given me the pleasure of seeing you about six 
days before I supposed I'd get a sight of you. I can't 
tell you how much I appreciate this welcome, and I 
am going to do all I can to help the Democrats. 

"Maybe you think it is easy for a man to express 
himself on such an occasion ; if anyone does, I'll 
undertake to pay him a handsome sum to step up and 
tell me just how good I feel if he can do it any better 
than I have done." 

"Say," called out Mayor Dahlman, "what arrange- 
ments have you made about going back to Nebraska?" 

"Well, you know there's to be a gathering in Chi- 
cago on Tuesday night next," called back Mr. Bryan. 

"You'll have to cut that out unless we are in it," 
declared Mr. Dahlman. 

"Do you want me to go with you?" asked Mr. 
Bryan, using his hands as a megaphone. 

"Yes, yes, yes," chorused the delegates. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 73 

''Will you let us take you to Chicago and wait for 
you, and then take you back home?" bawled the 
mayor. 

"Dee-lighted," roared Mr. Bryan, making a pro- 
found bow, and showing his teeth. 

That was the signal for another outbreak, and then 
the delegates, to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," be- 
gan to sing: 

"We're here because, we're here because, we're here 
because we're here." 

Then the crowd started over for Mrs. Bryan, and 
one of the "Home Folks" handed two large bunches of 
flowers to her, which he said had come all the way 
from Nebraska and had been picked by the women- 
folks out there. 

"I thank you heartily," said Mrs. Bryan, her face 
beaming with pleasure. 

Then the launch shot over from Mr. Goltra's yacht, 
and with a farewell hand-shake, Mr. Bryan and his 
wife stepped on board and were whisked away to the 
yacht, which put off for Staten Island, while the Mo- 
ran tugs, bearing a hoarse crowd of "Home Folks," 
poked their noses toward the Battery. 

The "Home Folks," proudly bearing the Bryans 
with them, left New York for Lincoln September 3. 
Ovation followed ovation all the way, the most impor- 
tant speeches on the journey being made at Detroit 



74 BRYAN THE MAN 

and Chicago. The special train pulled into the Bur- 
lington station in Lincoln at 5 o'clock on the after- 
noon of September 5. Some 42,000 persons visited 
the state fair that day — Bryan day — and all these and 
many more were thronging the streets to catch a 
glimpse of the returning statesman. The party was 
escorted by six bands and a mounted guard to the 
home of Charles W. Bryan, his brother, at Nineteenth 
and Washington streets. 

The special mounted guard of honor of sixteen, es- 
corting the Bryan carriage under the command of 
Col. C. J. Bills, was composed of the following men: 
E. M. Westervelt, S. M. Melick, T. J. Doyle, George 
Donelson, Herbert Folsom, Morris Folsom, Frank 
Rawlings, W. G. L. Taylor, Dr. R. E. Giffen, Landy 
Clark, A. F. Burke, Wilford Johnston, Charlas Wil- 
son, and F. J. Zimmer. 

At 7 o'clock Mr. Bryan, from the north balcony of 
the statehouse, addressed a crowd which covered about 
four acres. Mayor Brown acted as presiding officer 
at the statehouse. Governor Mickey gave the address 
of welcome. The receiving line for the reception 
which followed the addres.^es was composed of Mr. 
and Mrs. Bryan, Governor Mickey and Mrs. Mickey, 
Mayor F. W. Brown and Mrs. Brown, and Mr. and 
Mrs. J. E. Miller. The crowd was so great and Mrs. 
Bryan was so tired that some of her friends before the 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 75 

reception tried to dissuade her from shaking hands, 
but she insisted, saying: 

"I have shaken hands wherever else we have stopped 
and of course I want to shake hands with the home 
people." 

The capital grounds were densely crowded and the 
many who could not enter the building were enter- 
tained by a fine display of fireworks. The entire city 
was jubilantly jolly, gloriously happy. 

Ten Nebraska mayors led the enthusiastic crowd of 

"Home Folks" on the memorable journey to New 

York. Some of the banners and transparencies have 

become famous. Among them Avcre the following: 

"We Have Kept the Faith." 

"What Is Home Without a Bryan?" 

"They Called Him the Boy Orator of the Platte." 
"We Knew They Would Come to Know Him." 

The following are the names of the mayors in 
the party: 

Dahlman, Omaha; Brown, Lincoln; Burke, Friend; 
Ward, Tecumseh; Hunker, West Point; Watzke, 
Humboldt; Gering, Plattsmouth; Friday, Norfolk; 
Uhlig, Holdredge; McCrae, North Platte. 

The rank and file of the "Home Folks" was made 
up of the following: 

Frank W. Brown, Jr., Lincoln; H. S. Daniel, 



76 BRYAN THE MAN 

Omaha; Dr. P. L. Hall, Lincoln; W. H. Green, 
Creighton; J. R. Gilchrist, Omaha; H. S. Byrne, 
Omaha; Dr. T. J. Dwyer, Omaha; P. C. Ileafey, 
Omaha; J. A. C. Kennedy, Omaha; Harry Hayward, 
Omaha; H. J. Whipple, Omaha; Edgar Adler, Se- 
ward; Gus N. Friend, Lincoln; J. R. Buckner, Lin- 
coln ; W. J. D. Counts, University Place ; H. H. Huffa- 
ker, Silver City, Iowa; C. C. Cannam, Omaha; J. L. 
Ream, Axtcll, Kas. ; H. C. Richmond, Fremont; 0. 
W. Palm, Lincoln ; A. J. Love, Omaha ; W. L. Ander- 
son, Omaha; L. J. Doup, Omaha; Dr. Gotham, Oma- 
ha; Burt Murphy, Omaha; Charles Furay, Omaha; 
P. J. Sullivan, Omaha; L. I. Abbott, Omaha; C. W. 
Ortman, Omaha; A. D. Webber, Creighton; L. D. 
Smith, Creighton ; J. G. Beste, Ilartington ; Samuel 
Wilder, Hartington; John Milliken, Fremont; George 
Looshen, Fremont; J. A. Donohoe, O'Neill; A. F. 
Mullen, O'Neill; C. C. Smrha, University Place; John 
Davis, University Place; Frank Hardy, University 
Place; John G. Maher, Lincoln; H. E. Newbranch, 
Omaha; Goodley F. Brucker, Omaha; John C. 
Drexel, Omaha; W, R. Bennett, Omaha; R. H. 
Harris, Missouri Valley; Ed. Woods, York; George 
Cochran, Lincoln; T. R. Porter, Omaha; J. 

B. McDonald, North Platte; Judge Kelligar, Auburn; 

C. B. Dugdale, Omaha; Charles Higgins, Omaha; 
Frank Stout, Omaha; T. P. Redmond, Omaha; W. E. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 77 

Barkley, Lincoln; W. H. Cowgill, Holdrege; J. W. 
Leyda, Plattsmouth; W. B. Eastham, Broken Bow; 
Matt Miller, David City; S. A. Lewis, Omaha; W. E. 
Spencer, Omaha; H. W. Brenizer, Omaha; A. N. 
Fricke, Omaha; Fred Stubbendorf, Omaha; E. M. 
Friend, Lincoln; Dr. J. F. Lynn, Omaha; R. Mosier, 
Silver City, Iowa; W. F. Green, Hamburg, Iowa; Col. 
W. F. Davis, Hamburg, Iowa; W. C. Sunderland, 
Omaha; Dr. A. W. Riley, Omaha; W. F. Stoeckery, 
Omaha; J. H. Bulla, South Omaha; Edgar Howard, 
Columbus; Findley Howard, Columbus; M. D. Welch, 
Lincoln; W. C. Wilson, Lincoln; M. H. Beck, Lin- 
coln; Dan V. Stephens, Fremont; B. Neptune, Fre- 
mont; L. Funke, Lincoln; Frank Dowalter, Lincoln; 
Harry Dungan, Hastings; G. W. Phillips, Columbus; 
Frank C. Babcock, Hastings; H. Froos, Lincoln; Wil- 
liam Wermerker, Scribner; Harley G. Moorhead, 
Omaha; J. C. Outright, now of Peoria, 111.; James B. 
Davis, Humboldt; P. E. McKillip, Humphrey; D. J. 
O'Brien, North Platte; Joseph Hayden, Omaha. 

On October 1 the ''Home Folks" gathered at Fair- 
view as the dinner guests of Mr. and Mrs. Bryan. 
The stirring incidents of the New York reception were 
recounted. A permanent organization was formed, 
Edgar Howard being chosen president. The reunion 
will be an annual event 

On "Bryan day" the Nebraska State Journal, a Re- 



78 BRYAN THE MAN 

pu'blican newspaper, had on its front page a large 
picture of Mr. Bryan, underneath which appeared the 
following poem by A. L. Bixby : 

YOU ARE WELCOME, MR. BRYAN. 

"Praise the Lord for times when people, bidding poli- 
tics be still. 

Meet and greet the common hero with expressions of 
good will. 

When the slogan has been sounded and the battle-cry 
is raised, 

Then it Is that friendship ceases, but this moment, 
God be praised, 

Is the time and the occasion to pursue another tack — 

You are welcome, Mr. Bryan; we are glad to see you 
back. 

"What a journey you have taken, everybody under- 
stands, 

And what facts you have recorded in this trip through 
foreign lands. 

You have watched the Jap man toiling and the little 
ones at play, 

You have seen the Brahmin worship in his own pecu- 
liar way; 

You have been where Aaron traveled, you have trod 
the selfsame track — 

You are welcome, Mr. Bryan; we are glad to see you 
back. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 79 

''Through the streets of old Calcutta I can see you 
thread your way, 

And I saw you at Benares, and I heard you at Bom- 
bay. 

Past the jungle where the tiger waits to stalk its prey 
perforce, 

Over plains and hills and mountains you pursued your 
restless course. 

Of the garnered information, sure your letters show 
no lack — 

You are welcome, Mr. Bryan; we are glad to see you 
back. 

"This the day to be devoted to benevolent good cheer, 

Everybody quite delighted to see everybody here. 

Let us all with kindly greetings and with freedom 
from all fret, 

Make the day and the occasion one we never can for- 
get; 

Let the noisy politician for a moment hush his 
clack — 

You are welcome, Mr. Bryan; we are glad to see you 
back." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BRYAN FARM. 

Go east two miles with the rural postman from the 
sub-station in South Lincoln until you come to a 
minute green house, perched high on stilts to for- 
fend disaster from Nebraska rains and allow easy ac- 
cess from a mail wagon. This green house, "W. J. 
B., Route 3, Box 28," is right at the back door of the 
Bryan farm. The stranger enters not this way. He 
approaches via cement walks from the front, where all 
the seams of the farm are nicely pressed, the bastings 
withdrawn, where lovely insertion of flowers and 
shrubs is about the house, Fairview, itself, and the 
whole garment of this bit of nature is hung before 
him spick and span. 

But enter the back w^ay, via the little green house 
on stilts. On one side of the road is a pasture, ankle- 
deep in blue gra.«s, and beyond it a strip of corn. On 
the other side, from the letter-box, is Fairview and 
about it pasture, orchards, deep green alfalfa and the 
buildings wherein stock has been sheltered that are 
remembered with bits of gay prize ribbon, all care- 
fully preserved by the owner of Fairview. 

When one goes to the Bryan farm he steps not only 
on land that has sprung gladly to meet the feet of a 
world-traveler who has known kings but who loves the 

80 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 81 

soil, but the tourist, loafer or politician, mayhap, en- 
ters a farm that is without a boss. 

"Boys, I suppose I'm boss here, but I believe we 
won't have a boss. I believe you work better without 
one." 

This good-natured phrase, bedded on solid common- 
sense, however, is quoted by the farm "hands." It 
came from Mr. Bryan and it has been one of the prac- 
tical working rules of the farm, not an aphoristic bit 
of Utopianisra. The farm is run with the least possi- 
ble amount of centralized direction. And, curiously, 
the farm prospers. 

Each spring Mr. Bryan and the "boys" have a 
heart-to-heart talk. It is the same sort of discussion 
that one hears on any other farm in the spring-time. 
Its location is a matter of accident. The pig-lot, the 
lawn or the machine shed may provide the stage set- 
ting. Here they talk over the proper rotation of crops, 
the fertilization of this field and the fencing of that. 
IMo orders are given; they merely arrive at an under- 
standing, the employe giving as much advice as the 
statesman-farmer. 

The Bryan farm is one whereon every man and no 
man is a "bo.ss." 

"Wliat is this farm? — not a money-making invest- 
ment?" 

"Well, hardly," replies the young fellow who cares 



82 BRYAN THE MAN 

for the stock. ''Mr. Bryan beds and boards the bunch 
of us and pays us about $150 besides every month. 
All that certainly does not come out of this farm." 

The Bryan farm comprises 1'60 acres. Owing to 
the fact that many small investors foresaw the value 
of suburban property, small plats were purchased by 
them before Fairview was a fact. In consequence the 
farm lies in and about these smaller holdings. The 
body of the farm comprises 92 acres. The remainder 
is found on the edges, a five-acre pasture here, a corn- 
field there, a few acres of alfalfa forming an outlying 
colony on another side and an adolescent orchard 
springing up on another. Walking over the farm, it 
appears to be much larger than it really is. 

The Fairview visitor who doesn't approach via the 
letter-box, comes by suburban car from Lincoln, 
alighting at a small rest house, a kindly shelter in 
rainy weather. This is on the Bryan farm. The vis- 
itor follows a rising cement w^alk, that edges the pas- 
ture, crosses the road at right angles and tramps up 
the red-paved, tree-bordered drive, the white casings, 
the soft-toned brick and prismatic glass of Fairview, 
clean, clear and inviting ahead of him. 

Only about the house is there blue grass. The 
"front" yard is alfalfa, deep and lusty, and yielding 
four crops each year. With the introduction to the 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 83 

farm comes pleasant acquaintance with this rival of 
both wheat and corn, alfalfa. 

Wheat, oats and rye are not on the Bryan farm. 
Some of each have been raised in previous years, but 
crop rotation and the nature of the soil have elimi- 
nated these crops this year. A third of the farm is 
devoted to corn, the remainder to pasture, gardens, 
orchards and a red clover patch dotted with the tomb- 
like white of bee-hives. 

The farm is complete. It is the answer of a prac- 
tical farmer to an idealist. The coach-house is per- 
fectly appointed. The cow-barn is cement-floored and 
iron-stalled. The mow is equipped with an automatic 
lift that stows away a ton of hay as easily and quietly 
as one would lift a wig. One looks at the array of 
farm machinery and momentarily debates whether he 
is on a farm or at a county fair. 

"You seem to have everything." 

"Only one thing needed," said an assistant in the 
chilly spring of this year, 1908. "That is a cultivator 
for listed corn, and I'm going to get it tomorrow." 

What the Bryan farm needs, it is given. It is not 
a money-making proposition. The farm hand was 
right. It is a country home and such an one as its 
owner may afford. The land is nurtured tenderly for 
its yield, the employes work steadily but with inde- 
pendence, and about the place is an air of good feeling 



84 BRYAN THE MAN 

and peace, an air that impresses on one the fact that 
the farm is the home, not only of a man of the people, 
but of a gentleman who prefers a farm to a country- 
place all lawn and hedge, or a private club-house, all 
tennis courts and links. 

"Guess Mr. Bryan studied pretty hard when he was 
young," opines Paul, a strenuous planter of cement 
posts on the farm, "and I think he never really got 
all of the farm he wanted when he was a boy. He 
ought to now," and the post planter waves his hand 
lazily toward the black corn-fields, striped with green, 
and a pastured strip whence a bunch of cows, lowing 
gently, are coming to the milker. 

The' stock on the Bryan farm is blooded, but it has 
fallen off in numbers and is not so much a feature of 
the place as it was before Mr. Bryan emulated Senor 
Magellan and circumnavigated the globe. The cattle 
herd, now comprising three bulls and fifteen cows, is 
due for more depletion. Not more than a year ago 
the herd comprised Jerseys, Durhams, Herefords and 
Holsteins. Now it is of Durham and Jersey blood and 
Fairview will shortly become a Jersey farm. This 
herd will be headed by a magnificent polled Jersey 
bull, the progeny of which, despite crosses, are also 
without horns. 

A poultry battalion that once represented the entire 
chicken catalogue suffered likewise when the Bryans 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 85 

began their long jaunt. Cochins and White Wyan- 
dotttes, which, by the way, are Mrs. Bryan's favorites, 
alone mafee up the flock. And with all the cows, pigs, 
chickens and horses, there mopes about in almost 
ghastly silence one lonely guinea fowl. Bereft of the 
loquacious society of her tribe, this guinea hen pur- 
sues a quiet course, exhibiting a penchant for silence 
most amazing in view of the reputation of her breed. 

There is no open water on the Bryan farm, but the 
pasture to the north is cut by a gully in which a pond 
appears intermittently. In this gully William, junior, 
during one holiday week, sought to build a swimming 
hole, a thing which, he earnestly declared, "no farm 
should be without." Every man on the farm was 
busy for days throwing a dam across the "draw." 
Their work completed, they returned to their usual 
labors, waiting for the rains which were to add a 
little sheet of water to the landscape. The rains came, 
in the course of time, but before them had come the 
gophers. The rodents had honeycombed the dam and 
the work of days melted before the torrent. Open 
water and the swimming hole are now, as before the 
dam was built, a fancy. 

The Bryan farm has appreciated since its inception. 
Fairview, with its broad acres, its scientifically correct 
barns and drains, its pavements and walks, its adoles- 
cent orchards and knee-deep pastures, -would be 



S6 BRTAX THE MAN 

"meat" for the voracious bargain-hunter at $75,000. 

The Bryan farm has been a fund for caricature. 
Its owner has had gratuitous praise and sneers heaped 
upon him because he had the temerity to purchase 
the land. Its fine expanse has been made into a taunt 
of ••grand-standing," its splendid home a peg for in- 
vidious comparison and the humble loveliness in- 
herent in all earth a simile for the man's character. 

!Mr. Bryan in the Commoner explains how the farm 
became a reality. In 1902 he took occasion to answer 
comments made by the daily press. Concerning his 
investment he said : 

''In the spring of 1893 I purchased five acres of 
ground about three miles southeast of Lincoln. The 
land is situated on the top of a beautiful knoll over- 
looking the Antelope valley. The ^^ew from this spot 
is unsurpassed; as far as the eye can reach the land is 
under cultivation and the colors change with the crops 
and the season. 

'•In 1897 twenty acres were purchased adjoining 
the original five and in 1898 I began improving the 
place by setting out an orchard and shade trees. Since 
then ten acres more have been added, so that the farm 
now consists of thirty-five acres.'"' 

This is the explanation of the owner. It coincides 
in every way with the spirit of peace and contentment 
which enchants the visitor. Since ^Mr. Bryan ex- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 87 

pressed his views more acres have been added and im- 
provement has followed improvement. 

Products of the Bryan farm find a ready market. 
The hogs are weighed on a scales purchased by the 
owner and are shipped or sold as occasion requires. 
Mr. Bryan's corn has been exhibited at the Nebraska 
state fairs. Grain from Fairv'iew won a medal at the 
Portland exposition. 

Nature has dealt kindly with Mr. Bryan's quarter- 
section. The orchard, the vines, the flowers and the 
shrubs have flourished. The trees now cast an en- 
ticing shade. Each year the changing seasons adorn 
the landscape with new beauties. 

Mr. Bryan is fond of horses, but prefers reliability 
to speed. Mr. and Mrs. Bryan drive to and from the 
city as occasion requires. There is no coachman in 
flamboyant livery. There is no ostentation, no dis- 
play. When the master of Fairview starts on an ex- 
tended journey Mrs. Bryan usually accompanies him 
to the depot. After he has departed she drives back 
to Fairview. 

More than once Mr. Bryan has driven the big green 
farm wagon to the city, assisted in loading supplies 
for the farm and then jogged home again. 

As a matter of fact, the Bryan farm is merely a 
fine home, the dwelling place of one who likes quiet 
and comfort and who prefers the simple pleasures of 



88 BRYAN THE MAN 

slow country life to the more high-strung manners of 
a city. It is the retreat of one who, when from home, 
is constantly on exhibition. When away, his every act 
is scrutinized, his every word debated. On the farm 
is security. It is the logical contrast in the life of a 
public man who, humanly, tires of incessant high- 
lights and who seeks quiet tones and shadows for rest. 



CHAPTER X. 

HOME LIFE OF THE BRYANS. 

The word "ideal" has often been applied to the 
home life of the Bryans. Certain it is that between 
few husbands and wives is there such absolute unity 
and sympathy in every phase of life. On October 1, 
1908, Mr. and Mrs. Bryan will have been married 
twenty-four .years, and throughout that time Mrs. 
Bryan has been the great "Commoner's" only con- 
fidante and final adviser. 

"Fairview," the beautiful Bryan home, is now 
brightened by the merry chatter and laughter of chil- 
dren. The two little ones of his oldest daughter, 
Ruth, now Mrs. W. H. Leavitt, are the darlings of 
Mr. Bryan's heart and he is never happier than on 
the rare occasions when he can rest in a big chair with 
a roguish grandchild on either knee. 

It was a happy reunion held at Fairview in the 
summer of 1908 when Mr. Bryan was able to snatch a 
few days to be spent at home. The whole Bryan fam- 
ily had not been united at Fairview for many months 
until this summer. The Leavitt children seemed to be 
the center of attraction, Mr. Bryan condescending to 
compete with "Uncle William" and "Aunt Grace" — 
both inordinately proud of their titles — for the first 
place in the afFiections of the babies. William, Jr., is 

89 



90 BRYAN THE MAN 

now nineteen years of age, while Grace is seventeen. 
That his ''children might have plenty of fresh air 
and healthy exercise" is one of the reasons given by 
Mr. and Mrs. Bryan for the removal of the family 
from the city to the farm. 

Mrs. Bryan is a notable housekeeper. The affairs 
of her household move as though regulated by clock- 
work. The machinery is never apparent, but that it 
is well-oiled no guest can doubt. She is by preference 
on early riser, five o'clock on summer mornings and 
six o'clock in the winter being her favorite hours. 
Even while dressing she begins to plan the duties of 
the day. Business that must be attended to in time 
for the morning mail is then despatched and the serv- 
ants receive their orders for the day. Mrs. Bryan 
often breakfasts alone, the matinal meal at the Bryan 
home being an easy, informal repast after the English 
custom, each member of the family being privileged 
to eat at any time or place that suits his or her indi- 
vidual wish. After breakfast any orders for the day 
that have not received her previous attention are com- 
pleted. She then devotes herself to the morning mail, 
which is always heavy. An ingenious stenographic 
system of her own devising considerably lightens her 
work. 

Each member of the family is expected to appear 
promptly on schedule time for dinner at night, 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 91 

though some latitude is allowed at luncheon. Mrs. 
Bryan goes a little farther than her husband in her 
abstinence from stimulants, as she drinks neither tea 
nor coffee. An enormous appetite has been the con- 
stant companion of Mr. Bryan since the days of his 
youth. He is especially fond of chicken and gravy. 
He can sleep anywhere and at any time, A nap of 
fifteen or twenty minutes leaves him refreshed and 
ready for work when he awak&s. He can take a few 
winks between stations or at an intermission between 
speeches. He can rest with perfect comfort in a car- 
riage or a railway coach. He drinks large quantities 
of water. 

The gifts which go to make up the genuine home- 
maker are undeniably Mrs. Bryan's. That she can 
"make a barn seem like home" was exemplified when 
the family moved from the Lincoln home to Faindew 
in March, 1903. The house, like many new houses, 
was not completed on scheduled time. The Lincoln 
cottage had been sold and nuist be given up and, 
anyhow, the whole family had a consuming desire to 
be ''on the spot" to see the finishing touches put upon 
the new home. So it was decided that the Bryan 
family should live in the already finished barn until 
the completion of the permanent residence. The barn 
is a roomy, substantial structure of brick, with slate 



92 BRYAN THE MAN 

roof and cement floor, and Mrs. Bryan converted it 
into a charming, if unconventional, retreat. 

''How tired you must be of living in a barn," sym- 
pathizing friends would remark to the Bryan chil- 
dren. 

"Not much! It's jolly good fun!" William, Jr., 
would stoutly assert, and the rest of the family seemed 
to agree with him. A casual visitor to the barn would 
find that his ideas had undergone considerable modi- 
fication by the time he was ready to go back to town. 

The ground for the house at Fairview was staked 
off, Mr, and Mrs. Bryan assisting, October 1, 1902. 
This was the seventeenth anniversary of their mar- 
riage and the fourteenth anniversary of their removal 
from Illinois to Nebraska. They celebrated this dou- 
ble anniversary by driving out to ''the farm," as it 
was still called at that time, and initiating the realiza- 
tion of the plans they had laid together, years before. 
Mrs. Bryan herself took out the first shovelful of dirt 
from the excavation. 

The library, or .study, is perhaps the heart of the 
Bryan home. Its most important article of furniture 
is a huge double desk, where, one on each side, Mr. 
and Mrs. Bryan are to be found more frequently than 
in any other part of the house. Whatever the other 
books may happen to be that lie upon this desk, a 
large Bible is always to be found there. Mr. Bryan 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 93 

has always shared his intellectual as well as his social 
life with his wife and it is safe to say that he never 
finally decided any very important question without 
first talking the matter over with Mrs. Bryan. If 
there is a weak point anywhere in his argument she 
is sure to find it and will unfailingly call his attention 
to it. The two were in college at the same time, and 
while they did not attend the same schools, they seem 
to have something of the camaraderie often noticed 
between two who have attended a co-educational insti- 
tution. Together they studied law, and together they 
studied the silver question during the long winter 
evenings in Washington, reading everything in 
French, English and German that they could find on 
the subject. 

Little fiction and few "light" books of ary kind are 
to be found in the Bryan library. The books, nearly 
all of which show marks of usage, show their owner's 
dual tastes for the oratory of the masters of English 
eloquence and the contemporary writers upon social 
and economic conditions in the United States. Plenty 
of history is there, biography, speeches and addresses, 
and works upon political economy. A number of the 
great poets are represented and especial honor is paid 
to William Cullen Bryant, whose ''Ode to a Water- 
fowl" is Mr, Bryan's favorite poem. Of it he has 
said : 



94 BRYAN THE MAN 

"The author has clothed a familiar theme in beau- 
tiful language and so embalmed a noble sentiment 
that it will live and give inspiration for generations 
to come." 

Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Bryan ha.s ever cared for so- 
called "society," though both thoroughly enjoy the 
comradeship of their real friends — of which during 
the passing years they have gained a generous supply. 
Mrs. Bryan is a member of Sorosis, one of the most 
serious of the woman's clubs of Lincoln, and Mr, 
Bryan is a member of the Round Table, a club given 
to the discussion of the important questions of the 
day. A meeting of the latter club was held recently 
at Fairview, the subject of railroad legislation being 
taken up at the dinner. 

Mrs. Bryan does not devote as much time to active 
club work now as in the past. A part of the corre- 
spondence and other writing that she used to do for 
Mr. Bryan is now delegated to a secretary. She does 
not now, as formerly, invariably rise at 5 o'clock every 
morning in order to devote at least two hours to Mr. 
Bryan's private correspondence before her family is 
stirring. But her interast in the great questions of 
the day is as keen as ever and for her decided opin- 
ions she can always give the soundest reasons. Her 
markedly logical habits of thought are doubtless due 
in part to her legal training — in order to be of greater 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 95 

assistance to her husband in his work she studied law 
and was admitted to practice before the Supreme court 
of Nebraska in 1888 — and also to her early solid edu- 
cation under her father, Mr. Baird. Her father was 
blind during the latter years of his life and Mrs. 
Bryan spent many hours reading aloud to him from 
the works of the masters of English literature. 

Dignity enfolds Mr. Bryan as a mantle, and yet its 
presence is not apparent. His manner is simple, 
frank and unassuming. Lincoln newspaper men have 
questioned him and quizzed him day after day, year 
after year, in victory and defeat. Gentle courtesy and 
absolute fairness has been accorded each one, the 
friend and the foe, the veracious and the *'faker." 
Once a newspaper man prefaced a joke with a mock 
question. 

, "Mr. Bryan," he said, "do you want to get even 
with a man who has annoyed you for four months?" 

"No, sir," was the quick response, "I do not wish to 
get even with anybody." 

Then the knight of the pencil explained that it was 
another newspaper man who might inherit the re- 
venge. There was to be some "mock roasting" before 
the scribe left to take another position. Mr. Bryan 
laughed heartily at the proposed "jo.shing" and with- 
drew his first statement. But jiLst the same it was 
understood that Mr. Bryan had no time to waste in 



96 BRYAN THE MAN 

"getting even." Caustic critics might waste their time 
and effort; Mr. Bryan would meet their onslaughts 
with philosophic calm and good-natured resignation. 

The question of dress has never been one of espe- 
cial moment to any member of the Bryan family. 
Mrs. Bryan's gowns are always quiet and unobtrusive 
though tastefully chosen. Mr. Bryan's low, turn- 
down collar and string tie are known now almost all 
over the world. An English fashion journal objected 
seriously to the cut of his frock coat on the occasion 
of a certain public appearance in London, but the 
man in it roused unlimited enthusiasm throughout 
the Continent as well as in England. Mr. Bryan con- 
fesses to one weakness in the matter of raiment, but 
it is one that he does not often get a chance to in- 
dulge, especially now that he so seldom rides horse- 
back. — He does like the feel of high-top boots, in 
which his trouser-ends can be comfortably hidden I 

Perfect health and a rugged constitution have been 
Mr. Bryan's most valuable assets. He was threatened 
with malaria while in the army, and suffered from a 
slight attack of pneumonia about four years ago, but 
with these exceptions and an occasional cold or head- 
ache, his health has been perfect. Exercise for its 
own sake is not included in the Bryan scheme of liv- 
ing. To imagine Mr. Bryan playing tennis is pre- 
posterous. Neither does he take mad gallops along 




MKS. \VIIJJ.\:\I J. UliYAN. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 97 

country roads. Running and all forms of violent ex- 
ercise, he avoids. Instead, he does some form of 
work: He drives to the station to meet a visitor; he 
may assist in planting a tree; his energy is expended 
in doing things, not in romping. Yet the physique of 
the man is beyond criticism. The muscles of his arms 
and chest are like iron. His legs are sturdy and his 
whole body stored with latent physical energy. He 
has never tasted liquor. No one ever heard of his 
using tobacco. Alert newspaper men who have 
watched him closely for twelve years have failed to 
detect the use of even a mild ''swear-word." His 
stories may be repeated before any audience. His 
conduct as a man is without blame and beyond re- 
proach. 

The Bryans are the kindest of neighbors and are 
deservedly popular among those who are so fortunate 
as to live near them. The principal of the high school 
of College View, a little suburb just beyond Fairview, 
this spring secured Mr. Bryan's promise to speak, as a 
■neighbor, at the College View high school commence- 
m>ent exercises. As accommodations were limited and 
high school graduating classes invariably draw crowds 
of admiring friends and relatives, it was decided to 
keep the fact that Mr. Bryan was to appear on the 
program a profound secret. It was concealed from 
the newspapers, Mr. Bryan told nobody and the prin- 



93 BRYAN THE MAN 

cipal told nobody but his wife. But somehow the 
secret leaked out in College View, though it did not 
penetrate to Lincoln. 

So when Mr. and Mrs. Bryan came quietly driving 
over to College View that evening in their buggy, ex- 
pecting to slip unobtrusively in to the commencement 
exercises, their surprise may be imagined when, on the 
outskirts of the town, a band awaiting them in the 
coign of vantage of the band-stand, greeted them with 
lively strains of music and they were escorted through 
crowds of people, all cheering wildly for Bryan, as far 
as the high school building. The great majority could 
not gain entrance to the building, which was already 
tilled; but they waited quietly outside until the exer- 
cises were over and then formed an enthusiastic escort 
for the Bryans on their homeward way. This was an 
unusual demonstration for College View, which 
usually looks very quietly upon Mr. Bryan merely in 
his capacity of a good neighbor. 

Soon after their removal from Lincoln to Fairview 
in 1903, Mr. and Mrs. Bryan decided that they would 
withdraw from the First Presbyterian church, one of 
the wealthiest and most influential churches of Lin- 
coln, and would attend the Westminster Presbyterian, 
a small and struggling church much nearer their new 
home. When at home, both are regular attendants 
at church services, and Mr. Bryan has often occupied 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 99 

the pulpit of Westminster and many other churches. 
He never takes money for addresses made upon the 
Sabbath or in a church. The minds of both husband 
and wife are essentially devout and God-fearing, and 
both maintain a cheerful optimism which has upheld 
them in trials and defeats that would have discouraged 
others of weaker faith. It has been asserted by many 
that Mr. Bryan is entitled through heredity to his 
temperament of a devotee, though in diverting its 
manifestations out of the religious and into political 
channels, he has given it a broader scope. 



CHAPTER XI. 

BRYAN AS AN EDITOR. 

Mr. Bryan's first experience as an editor came in 
1894 when, after the adjournment of Congress, he ac- 
cepted a position as titular editor of the Omaha World- 
Herald at a salary of $1,500 per year. From a mone- 
tary standpoint, of course, the position was not espe- 
cially attractive, but it gave Bryan the opportunity he 
wanted of reaching the audiences he most desired to 
impress. An odd case of mental telepathy connected 
with taking up of this work is related by Gilbert M. 
Hitchcock, owner of the World-Herald, as follows: 

"Mr. Bryan was in Washington and serving his last 
days in Congress. I wrote him a letter in which I in- 
vited him to become editor of the World-Herald and 
to purchase an interest in the property if he were in 
a position to do so. I told him that he could make the 
editorial policy of the paper entirely responsive to his 
own political convictions. Before Mr. Bryan had 
time to get my letter I received one from him. He 
asked if I would sell him the weekly edition of the 
World-Herald which I had been printing for circula- 
tion among the farmers. I have often thought of the 
impulse which caused him to write to me at almost the 
very same hour that I wrote to him." 

The editorial articles that appeared from Mr. 

100 




WILLIAM J. ];|{YAX. .11;. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. lOl 

Bryan's pen during the next few months were disap- 
pointing to some who had heard with enthusiasm his 
speeches in Congress and looked for great things from 
him in an editorial capacity. They seemed to be ora- 
torical, rather than convincing and to be lacking in 
pithiness and cogency. Much of the effect of his 
speeches had been due to his manner, which is always 
engaging and sincere. The Nebraska country editor 
who attributed the lack felt in Mr. Bryan's editorials 
at this time to the fact that he ''could not smile on 
paper" was not far from right. 

But his editorial career on the Omaha paper soon 
came to an abrupt end because of a curious incident 
which an eastern newspaper declared "could hardly 
happen outside the ranks of provincial journalism." 
Though nominally editor of the World-Herald, a 
Democrat and Democratic candidate for the post of 
United States Senator, he was greeted one morning 
when he opened his paper at his home in Lincoln, by 
the appearance of two columns of Republican doctrine 
antagonistic to his position and his campaign. In- 
quiry disclosed that the business manager of the paper, 
in a moment of thrift, had sold these columns to the 
Republican executive committee for the period of the 
campaign. Mr. Bryan tried to break this contract 
in the courts, but when defeated in the effort, he did 



102 BRYAN THE MAN 

the only thing that was left for him to do and with- 
drew fromi the paper. 

After the campaign of 1900, Mr. Bryan established 
The Commoner, a weekly publication, declaring that 
he would be satisfied if, by fidelity to the common peo- 
ple, the paper proved its right to the name which had 
been chosen. He expressed the aim of the paper as be- 
ing an "endeavor to aid the common people in the pro- 
tection of their rights, the advancement of their in- 
terests and the realization of their aspirations. It is 
my aim," he declared, ''to exclude from; the columns 
of The Commoner everything objectionable, and, so 
far as space will permit, include all that is helpful and 
wholesome." 

No advertisements that can be considered in any 
way of a questionable nature are allowed in The Com- 
moner. Everything advertised therein is absolutely 
gilt-edged. Enough advertising offered by proprietors 
of patent medicines and various nostrums has been 
refused to endow a smiall college. Extravagant sums 
have been ofl'ered as inducements by agents of such 
concerns, but Mr. Bryan, as usual when his mind is 
mlade up on a question has remained firm. He has 
explained his views on advertising in The Commoner 
as follows: 

"The advertising has been limited, first, because 
I have rejected some kinds of advertising as unfit for 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 103 

a family paper; second, because I have not cared to 
advertise trust-made goods — and, with the growth of 
the trusts, this class amounts to more and more; while 
the exclusion of trust advertisements reduces the rev- 
enues of the paper, I can discuss the trust question 
without having to consider the effect of the editorial 
on my incomie; third, because many, of the large ad- 
vertisers are so prejudiced against Democratic prin- 
ciples that they will not 'encourage' a paper established 
solely for the defense of those principles. No advertis- 
ing matter will be accepted until investigation is made 
as to the responsibility of the advertiser." 

All advertising received in the office of The Com- 
moner must run the gauntlet of severe editing and 
blue-penciling at the hands of Mr. Charles W. Bryan, 
brother of W. J. Bryan and publisher of the paper. 
Mr. Richard L. Metcalfe is associate editor. These 
gentlemen act a.s field generals in the editorial fray, 
while Mr. Bryan himfeelf occupies the position of com- 
mander-in-chief. 

The following suggestions as to increasing the in- 
fluence of the press were mlade by Mr. Bryan in a 
letter to G. P. Brown, president of the Correspondents' 
club of New York City, who asked for some opinions 
upon the theme, "How can the influence of the Press 
be increased?" Mr. Bryan wrote: 

"Taking for granted that the members of your 



104 BRYAN THE MAN 

club will deal exhaustively with the news features of 
the press, I shall confine my observations to the edito- 
rial department. 

"The influence of the press must, in the long run, 
depend upon the character of the press, and, as the 
character of the press is determined by the character 
established by individual newspapers, it follows that 
improvement must begin with the units that make up 
the whole. Improvements are always possible, but 
three occur to me as of especial and immediate im- 
portance. 

"First. A newspaper will exert a greater influence, 
other things being equal, if it is known to represent on 
public questions the deliberate convictions of some per- 
son — a person of flesh and blood, not a corporation. 
The New York Tribune under Greeley was a good il- 
lustration of such a paper, 

"Second, the influence of a newspaper, other things 
being equal, will be greater if it is known who owns 
the paper and controls its policy, and that that person 
has no interests adverse to the interests of the readers. 
So many newspapers are owned by, or mortgaged to, 
'Speculators capitalists and monopolists, and are used 
for advocating or excusing legislation, having for its 
object the conferring of special privileges upon a few 
of the people at the expense of the rest of the people, 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 105 

that the press has been robbed of much of its legiti- 
mate influence. 

''Thirds The influence of the press will be in- 
creased by greater unity in the support of any good 
cauise and in the condemnation of any bad practice. 
The character of a paper is affected less by priority in 
the discovery of a felony than by persistence in the 
prosecution of the felon. In other words, a principle is 
more important than a 'scoop.' " 

Mr. Bryan has long contended that the political 
weekly had its distinct place in this country and is 
vitally needed. A few extracts from a speech made at 
a quarterly dinner of the Atlas club in Chicago in 
1903 will show his attitude on this miatter : 

"The daily paper in the large cities is so huge a 
business enterprise that the owner is seldom the editor. 
As a rule, the editor, or rather, the editors of a metro- 
politan daily are unknown to the public and the paper 
does not, therefore, stand for the convictions or express 
the views of any particular person. 

''It is not always known who owns the controlling 
interest in the stock of the large daily, neither is it 
known what pecuniary interests it endorses. The busi- 
ness end of such a paper is so large and lucrative that 
it is apt to dictate the editorial policy and make the 
owner timid about attacking an evil that has a strong 
financial backing. 



106 BRYAN THE MAN 

"For these reasons and for the additional reason that 
it is necessarily local in its circulation, the daily paper 
is likely to incline more and more to 'independence' 
. . . Some paper must take the place of the former po- 
litical daily if our people are to maintain an interest 
in public questions. Tliose who are busy and cannot 
investigate for themselves must have access to the 
writing of those who do investigate and who place be- 
fore the people the results of their investigations. The 
people are like jurors; they can decide intelligently 
when they have heard the testimony and the argu- 
ments, but the editors and the public speakers bring 
forth the facts and the arguments on both sides. The 
weekly paper can circulate throughout the entire na- 
tion and it is not so large or costly but that the editor- 
ship and the ownership can be comibined in one per- 
son. The political weekly is likely to grow in in- 
fluence as the daily loses its diistinotively political char- 
acter. 

''There is another advantage about the political 
weekly, namely, that its subscription price is so low 
that political opponents can afford to take it. Every 
patriotic and intelligent man wants to read both sides 
of a quesion. ... It would be well if there were 
more papers like the Commoner, devoted to the discus- 
sion of the political, economical and social questions 
that affect national politics. There should be papers 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 107 

representing different schools of thought and different 
views on public questions, for truth is born of con- 
flict. 

"Besides weeklies devoted to national politics there 
ought to be weeklies in every state devoted to the dis- 
cussion of state issues, so that the voter can, by taking 
papers on both sides, keep himself informed in regard 
to the acts of oflficialis and the policies of partias." 

During the last few years, articles of telling force 
have appeared in The Commoner. Mr. Bryan can 
pen an editorial fairly punctuated with sledge-hammer 
blows. He adopts a policy after careful study. After- 
wards he hammers away until the thought is firmly 
imbedded in the minds of his readers. 

As an employer of labor, Mr. Bryan is beyond criti- 
cism. The Commoner force is in reality a huge fam- 
ily. Each employe looks on the owner and publisher 
with the greatest respect. Mr. Bryan is familiar with 
the details of the business, often spends hours about 
The Commoner building and can call each worker by 
name. Indeed, change;^ are extremely rare. The 
Commoner employes are much better paid than the 
average newspaper workere, and the tasks are pleasant. 
There are no traces of hysteria or excitement. The 
distracting, nerve-wracking, brutal, time-beating mo- 
ments that characterize the printing of a metropolitan 
daily have been eliminated. 



108 BRYAN THE MAN 

On Saturday afternoons no one is to be found in the 
Commoner building. Holidays are always celebrated 
by the entire staff. The rooms where the employes 
work are light, airy and cheerful. The hours are 
short. In fact, hard-faced captains of industry would 
scoff at the lack of high pressure and the calm and 
philosophic manner of the workers. But years of trial 
have proved the truth of Mr. Bryan's theory. The 
employer gets better returns from the co-operative 
plan. The entire Commoner force is one big union. 
There are no rules, no oaths, no arbitrary exactions, 
and the employes do not seem to be aware of the close 
organization. But iron-clad union it is, and Mr. 
Bryan has tacitly been elected president of this union 
and his term will last for life. 

Newspaper men who have been in the Conmioner 
offices nearly every day since the establishment of the 
paper have been impressed by this simple and effective 
solution of the labor problem. The personality of one 
man has solved the vexed question. In fact, the line 
between employer and employe has never been drawn 
in the Commoner office for the simple reason that no 
one has ever tried to extract the maximum of labor 
for the minimum of cash. 

On the morning of June 6, 1908, newspaper men 
did not find Mr. Bryan at Fairview. On the previous 
day be had informed them that he would be in Lin- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. l09 

coin for an extended stay. At first, the reporters were 
surprised. A glance at the calendar, however, ex- 
plained it all. 

The day for the "Annual Commoner Picnic" had 
arrived. There is one day in the year when Mr. 
Bryan is not accessible to the general public. Mrs. 
Bryan cannot be seen by even her closest friends. On 
June 6 Mr. and Mrs. Bryan led the entire Commoner 
force to the Burlington station in Lincoln, where a 
train carried the excursionists to a shady grove near 
Crete, Neb. 

This annual picnic resembles the reunion of a huge 
and loving family. Employes, their wives and chil- 
dren are present. There are some athletic "stunts," 
old-fashioned country Fourth of July sports and nu- 
merous other diversions. Mr, Bryan usually acts as 
captain of one of the ball teams. He takes part in the 
jumping exercises; at least so nunor has it, for re- 
porters are not allowed, and none of the "Common- 
ers," big or little, will say a word. Little Commoners 
are the children of the big workers ; for Mr. Bryan has 
positive ideas on the subject of child labor. 

There is another rumor which has been persistent 
and alarming to those who guard the secret accounts 
of trusts and combines. William J, Bryan, in clear 
and unmistakable language, announces what the 
"business made" last year, and discusses briefly sug- 



110 BRYAN THE MAN 

gestions offered by the employes for better results next 
year. And results are emphasized, not dollars and 
cents. Many critics have asserted that Mr. Bryan does 
not know how to conduct a business proposition. And 
he doesn't. Not on the usual plan. 

The writer, as a representative of the opposition 
press, has visited the Commoner office day after day, 
year after year. The sociological aspect of the office 
attracted immediate attention. A careful lookout has 
been kept for signs of "soldiering," loafing, reckless- 
ness or incompetency. No traces of slip-shod time- 
serving can be detected. Apprehension and clock- 
watching are entirely absent. Industry and energy 
and competency are to be seen everywhere. It is true 
that no Commoner ever "rang in" or "rang out," a la 
department store. He or she could "soldier," ad in- 
finitum. But he or she doesn't. 

When asked just before he left San Francisco for 
his trip around the world, if he was fond of literary 
work, Mr. Bryan said: 

"Very much so, but only within the last few years 
have I had a chance to indulge in it. Of course I 
am glad that The Commoner has been successful, but 
this is due to the fact that the paper has filled a de- 
mand for such a publication, not to personal effort. 
It is intended to be just what the name implies. 
* * * As yet, I have not written much for maga- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. HI 

zines, but if I had the time and my matter was ac- 
cepted, I should like that work in preference to that 
of daily journalism." 

Though Bryan's industry is prodigious, the bulk 
of his published writings does not loom so large as 
that of a number of other men in American public 
life. Among the books that he has had published are 
"The First Battle"; "Under Two Flags"; "Letters to 
a Chinese Official," which is a Western view of East- 
ern civilization; "The Old World and Its Ways" and 
a number of bound volumes of "The Commoner, Con- 
densed," these latter containing, in condensed form, 
the chief editorials of the different years of the paper's 
existence. 

He has contributed many articles to the leading 
magazines of the country. One of these was on "Farm- 
ing as an Occupation" in the Cosmopolitan magazine 
for January, 1904. Another which aroused consider- 
able discussion was entitled "Individualism vs. Social- 
ism" and appeared in the Century magazine for April, 
1906. An article which has frequently been referred 
to as a "notable deliverance" was "The Issue in the 
Presidential Campaign" which was published in the 
North American Review for June, 1900. Presidential 
candidates, as a general rule, preserve a discreet silence 
as to campaign issues until their respective parties 
have formally declared their principles; but Bryan in 



112 BRYAN THE MAN 

this article practically framed and announced his own 
platform. 

Mr. Bryan's letters, written from abroad, show the 
immense pains that their author took to acquire in- 
formation. The night before he left San Francisco, 
in a conversation with Mr. Day Allen Willey, Mr. 
Bryan explained his aims in going abroad as follows: 

"I have long wanted an opportunity to see other 
countries, especially the life and ways the people have 
of dealing with the various economic and social prob- 
lems. By going as a writer I can obtain what I want 
much better than if I were in any official capacity. 
Then I am also free to compliment or criticise. If I 
were a member of Congress, for example, there might 
be subjects which I could not write about without 
being discourteous to the people to whom they per- 
tained; besides, I might get our Government into 
trouble." 

Mr. Bryan went on to explain his methods of work 
to Mr. Willey by saying: 

"I could not plan out so much on this trip if it 
were not for Mrs. Bryan. I had thought of taking a 
stenographer, but she asked me not to do so. She has 
been my secretary so much that she prefers to do it on 
this tour. We carry a typewriter in one of our trunks, 
I shall have this in my stateroom, and as soon as we 
leave the harbor, I shall begin some work, finishing 




GRACE DEXTEli P.KYAN. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 113 

it first in long-hand, after which Mrs. Bryan will look 
it over and copy it on the typewriter." 

When asked whether Mrs. Bryan ever acted as critic 
as well as stenographer, Mr. Bryan replied : 

"Always when I have any doubt about a paragraph 
I get her views. She is an excellent critic. If it were 
not for her as.sistance, I could not begin to accomplish 
what I do." 

Many a night on this tour, after their young people 
were fast asleep, this indefatigable man and his gifted 
wife sat up until far into the small hours of the morn- 
ing; the husband, pencil in hand, dashing off page 
after page in his sprawling handwriting; the wife, 
erect at the typewriter, her nimble fingers flying over 
the keys, revising and copying at the same time. 



CHAPTER XII. 

BRYAN AS A HUMORIST, 

When William Allen White pronounced Mr. Bryan 
''deadly serious," intimate friends searched the secret 
tunnels of the Kansan's rhetoric for a hidden joke. 
They found no trace of jest, nor could they reconcile 
such a statement with anything like fact. A casual 
survey of Mr. Bryan's writings, speeches and informal 
talks reveals a wealth of real wit and humor. 

Speaking extemporaneously at a banquet given in 
honor of the Nebraska State Press association, Mr. 
Bryan delivered epigrams, jokes and "funny" stories 
with the rapidity of a machine gun. The editors, 
convulsed with laughter, v;ere decoyed from one round 
of mirth to another without a seeming effort on the 
part of the speaker, who assumed a patriarchal air and 
appeared to be addressing a huge family. 

Dubbed as a man who had "some appreciation of 
fun, but little sense of humor," Mr. Bryan managed 
to deliver thirty sharp epigrams, puns, jokes and good 
stories in twenty-nine minutes of talking time, no 
deduction being made for spasms of laughter. Many 
of the best things said by Mr. Bryan on that occasion 
were manufactured on the spot and had peculiar and 
pertinent meaning to those present. 

Bryan is a master of the difficult art of story-telling. 

114 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. II5 

Some of his best jokes are at his own expense. His 
repartee is cutting, but his good humor never forsakes 
him. On the platform he is a dangerous man to 
question. He possesses an ahnost ludicrous method 
of mimicry and can repeat a question in such a man- 
ner as to cause his auditors to howl with laughter. 
At the same time he takes extreme care not to hurt 
the feelings of his tormenter or violate the spirit of 
fair play by taking an undue advantage. 

At a meeting of the Gridiron club in Washington 
Mr. Bryan told an apt story on himself, and it was so 
good that it "leaked out." 

In accordance with the time-honored custom of the 
club, prominent men, most of them present, were be- 
ing grilled by the "pres.s gang." During the pro- 
ceedings a plain and unequivocal question was aimed 
at Mr, Bryan. The interrogator wanted to know what 
he would do in case he was defeated in a third Presi- 
dential campaign. Mr. Bryan answered the thrust by 
telling a story. 

"A cowboy entered a dance hall while he was a 
trifle worse for liquid refreshments. The master of 
ceremonies escorted him to the door and by clever 
words lured him into the street, 

''In a little while the cowboy re-entered the hall and 
began to mingle with the dancers. Once more the 
person in authority came upon the scene, and this 



116 BRYAN THE MAN 

time he seized the cowboy by the arm and hustled 
him outside, 

"But the unwelcome visitor returned still again to 
the place of festivity, and this time the manager 
roughly kicked him down stairs and into the street. 

"At the foot of the stairs the unsteady and indig- 
nant cowboy pulled himself togeth-er, gazed long and 
intently at the hall from which he had been ejected 
and finally said: 

" 'They can't fool me. I know what's the matter 
with them. They don't want me in there.' " 

After the laughter of his hosts and the other guests 
had subsided, Mr. Bryan remarked that only one man 
had ever been defeated for the third time for the 
Presidency. That was Henry Clay. No one had ever 
been defeated the fourth time in a contest for Presi- 
dential honors. "And," solemnly declared Mr, Bryan, 
assuming a menacing attitude, "should I live to be as 
old as Speaker Cannon I would have five more chances 
of election. It would be easier to let me serve one 
term than to defeat me eight times." 

During the campaign of 1900 ]\Ir. Bryan told the 
newspaper men about a time when the joke was on 
him. When Governor John M. Thayer, of Nebraska, 
was a candidate for re-election, Mr. Bryan made an 
energetic campaign in favor of the Democratic nomi- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 117 

nee. The state was strongly Republican and the ma- 
jority in favor of Thayer was very large. 

Since Bryan had created the only ripple of opposi- 
tion in the campaign, he imagined that the victor 
might cherish resentment. The two had never met. 
Consequently, when Mr. J^ryan found that he was on 
the program at a gathering over which Governor 
Thayer was to preside, he was a trifle apprehensive. 
When he was ushered to a seat just behind Governor 
Thayer, the uneasiness of the orator increased. 
Finally Thayer turned his head and caught sight of 
Bryan. The latter realized that the ordeal was at 
hand, and he braced himself to meet it. Governor 
Thayer leaned forward. 

"Your name is ?" 

"W. J, Bryan," was the answer. 

The chief executive seemed puzzled. Once more he 
leaned toward the now disconcerted Bryan. 

"Mr. Bryan," said the governor in a tone that many 
could hear, "do you speak or sing?" 

Mr. Bryan's reply to the London Standard was 
hailed by many Americans a^ a new note in the 
humor line. Did Mr. Bryan expect the Democratic 
Presidential nomination? was the question asked of 
the famous Democrat, who was then traveling abroad. 
Bryan named a number of men who were available 
for Presidential honors. 



118 BRYAN THE MAN 

"Besides," he continued, "it will be more than two 
years before the convention meets, and I am not will- 
ing to sit on a stool and look pretty that long," 

Numerous jokes has the Fairview statesman aimed 
at the newspaper men. One morning during the cam- 
paign of 1900 a large crowd of reporters occupied the 
porch of the Bryan residence. A noted visitor rode 
up and wanted to see Mr. Bryan. The correspondents 
really had a prior claim upon Bryan's time, but the 
noted one must catch a train. Mr. Bryan pointed to- 
wards his study. 

"I will see you at once while I have a chance," he 
said to the noted man. "The poor I have always 
with me." 

And he included the assemblage of writers with a 
wave of his hand. 

An aspiring orator once asked advice. Mr. Bryan 
counselled brevity, and gave an example of it : 

"Do you drink?" asked Smith. 

"That's my business," answered Jones. 

"What other business have you?" queried Smith. 

A minister, Mr. Bryan once explained to a conven- 
tion of editors, was called to preach a funeral sermon. 
He wanted to point a moral, so he questioned a son 
of the deceased, seeking to ascertain the final utter- 
ances of his father. 

"What were your father's last words?" he asked. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 119 

''Well, you see, parson," answered the youth, 'Ta 
didn't have any last word. Ma was with him till he 
died." 

At a meeting of bankers in Chicago last May Mr. 
Hryan comhined humor with extreme firmness and 
expressed some opinions that were not popular with 
all of his hearers. The Associated Press reported the 
incident as follows : 

"If a bank lends more than the prescribed ten per 
cent of its capital it is notified not to do it again," 
said Mr. Bryan. ''If the bank continues to lend more 
than ten per cent it is again notified not to do it. If 
it keeps on, it keeps on being notified." 

"I will stake my reputation," cried Mr. Bryan more 
vehemently than ever and speaking slowly, "that the 
law was not enforced in New York during the panic." 

Another pause. The room was entirely quiet. 

"And I will say further," resumed Mr. Bryan, smil- 
ingly, "that if the law had been enforced in New York 
during the panic, the panic would have been a great 
deal worse." 

Everybody laughed at that and the atmosphere be- 
came clear again. 

To the Nebraska editors one time Mr. Bryan nar- 
rated his experience with an extremely persistent re- 
porter in St. Joseph, Mo. Several years ago this news- 
paper man asked Mr. Bryan if he intended to be a 



120 BRYAN THE MAN 

candidate for President again. The query came direct 
and straight after it had been disguised in many 
forms. 

"I will not be a candidate in 1904," responded 
Bryan. 

This did not satisfy the reporter. 

"But, Mr. Bryan, will you ever be a candidate 
again?" 

"Well, now," said the Nebraskan, "I do not intend 
to file a bond certifying that I will never run for office 
again." 

"The reporter "got even." In his paper he re- 
marked that Mr. Bryan had "declined to file a bond 
that he would never run for office again," and an edi- 
torial paragraph in the same paper, taking the matter 
up where the reporter had left it, remarked the next 
day: 

"Too bad Mr. Bryan will not file a bond not to run 
for President again. Lots of people would be willing 
to sign it." 

Mr. Bryan believes that to be one of the best bits 
of newspaper wit he has ever run across, even if it 
was at his expense. 

Mr. Bryan says in "The Old World and Its Ways" 
that at Mr. Choate's table in London he determined to 
test, with a story, the proverbial slowness of the Eng- 
lishman in catching the point of American stories. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 121 

He therefore told of the experience of the minister 
who was arguing against the possibility of perfection 
in this life. He asked his congregation : 

''Is there anyone here who is perfect?" 

No one arose. 

"Is there anyone in the congregation who has ever 
seen a perfect person?" 

No one arose. 

"Is there anyone here who has ever heard of a per- 
fect person?" 

A very meek little woman arose in the rear of the 
room. The minister repeated his question, to be sure 
he had been understood, and as she again declared 
that she had heard of such a person the minister 
asked her to give the name of the perfect individual 
of whom she had heard. 

"My husband's first wife," was the reply. 

Mr. Bryan says that all the Englishmen at the table 
saw the point of the story at once. 

At Fairview the sly humor of the Nebraska Com- 
moner has been preserved in bronze. When Mr, 
Bryan was in Japan he purchased images of two 
Korean lions, which are found at the entrances of 
many temples in that country. One of the bronze 
lions was placed on each side of the approach to Fair- 
view, and a peculiar fact is that one of the lions has 
his mouth open, while the other has his mouth closed. 



122 BRYAN THE MAN 

"They represent the eternal conflict between the 
positive and the negative," explains Mr. Bryan. ''And 
you see/' he declares, with a twinkle in his eye, "the 
lion with his mouth shut is a conservative, while the 
one with his mouth open is a radical." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BRYAN AS A SOLDIER. 

Mr. Bryan himself, is inclined to smile when hi-s 
career as a soldier is mentioned. But^ — "Those also 
serve who only stand and wait." It was not his fault 
that he did not reach the scene of the fighting; and 
all of the men Avho were forced to wait there in the 
South-land for the call that never came will tell you 
that it was immeasurably harder to wait than it would 
have been to fight. If Colonel Bryan, of the Third 
Nebraska, had reached the field of battle he would un- 
doubtedly have acquitted himself creditably and the 
men of hi^ regiment would have defended him to the 
last man. 

As it was his chief occupation while in the service 
of the great god, War, was in looking after the health 
of his men. He did this conscientiously and effect- 
ively ; and njany a fever-smitten and homesick boy was 
cheered by the unexpected appearance of his Colonel 
beside his cot. The Colonel stayed there, too, until 
the lad felt better than before his entrance. He was 
a stickler for all the proper sanitary precautions of 
camp life and saw that the rules of sanitation were ob- 
served in so far as was at all possible. 

On April 25, 1898, Mr. Bryan sent the following 
telegram to the President: 

123 



124 BRYAN THE MAN 

"Hon. William McKinlcy, President. My Dear Sir: 
I hereby place my service at your conmiand during 
the war with Spain and assure you of my willingness 
to perform, to the best of my ability, any duty which 
you, as Connuander-in-Chief of the army and navy, 
m'ay see fit to a.ssign me. Respectfully, W. J. Bryan." 

No answer to this message was received and in ex- 
planation of this Mr. Bryan has said: 

"I suppose the President's failure to assign me to 
duty was due to my lack of military experience. Think- 
ing that a second call for volunteers might be neces- 
sary, and feeling that I could go in on an equal foot- 
ing where all the volunteers were reciniits, I undertook 
to raise a regiment and had no difficulty in securing 
the necesisary companies." 

On May 17, 1898, Governor Ilolcomb granted 
William J. Bryan authority to raise a regiment of vol- 
unteers. May 19 General Victor Vifquain began re- 
cruiting Company A, Third regiment, Nebraska Na- 
tional Guard, and enlisted Mr. Bryan as a member. 
The recruiting office was crowded constantly. The 
Bryan Home Guards were allowed to form half the 
company and an effort was made to accept University 
of Nebraska cadets as much as possible, so that the 
regiment should contain a large number of well-drilled 
men. 

Governor Holcomb on June 4 appointed William J. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. l25 

Bryan Colonel and Victor Vifquain lieutenant colonel 
of the Third regiment, Nebraska National Guard. He 
also appointed Dr. S. D. Mercer, of Omaha, as regi- 
mental surgeon with rank of mtijor. The staff ap- 
pointments were completed as follows: Senior Major, 
John H. McClay, of Lincoln ; Junior Major, Conrad F. 
Scharmann, North Platte; Adjutant, C. F. Beck, Te- 
kamah; Quartermas'ter, W. F. Schwind; Surgeon, Dr. 
0. Grothan, St. Paul; Assistant Surgeons, Dr. Ralph 
J. Irwin, Hastings and Dr. A. P. Fitzsimmons, Te- 
cumseh. 

July 13, 1898, Colonel Bryan took the oath of office 
at Omaha and for the first time appeared in his 
uniform. Many complimented him on his youthful 
appearance, and the Colonel smilingly replied that he 
didn't look half so boyish as he felt. July 18, the 
Third Nebraska left for Florida and took camp in 
Jacksonville as a part of General Fitzhugh Lee's 
Seventh corps. 

Colonel Bryan had little use for the ''red tape" with 
which army officers are prone to be hedged about, and 
whenever it could be cut, he cut it. The humblest 
private in his regiment could as easily secure a talk 
with him as could a general. He was exceedingly 
popular with his men, who were always sure of finding 
in him a faithful friend and adviser. His good humor 
and optimism were unfailing. 



126 BRYAN THE MAN 

"He Wias the life of the officers' mess," wrote C. F. 
Beck, an adjutant on Colonel Bryan's staff, in an 
article in the Arena of October, 1900. "Every meal 
was made enjoyable by his presence. He had a fund 
of good anecdotes and was remarkably expert in telling 
them. The stories he told were always illustrative of 
some ix)int and differed from the anecdotes of many 
in that they were always scrupulously clean and free 
from any suggestion of impurity. In fact, he would 
not listen to any other kind of story without manifest- 
ing his disapproval, which he usually did by treating 
it with silent contempt." 

An incident showing Colonel Bryan's promptness in 
an emergency and his remarkable foresight is related 
by Adjutant Beck as follows: 

"One day while the regiment was stationed at Pablo 
Beach the cry 'A man drowning' was heard through 
the camp. Several hundred soldiers were soon at the 
water's edge helplessly watching the body of a Virginia 
boy being slowly but surely carried out to sea by the 
strong undertow. Colonel Bryan seized a coil of rope 
several hundred feet long, which he had previously 
bought, and soon had it at the scene of danger, where 
strong swimmers took it and tried to reach the boy. 
The tide was too strong, however, and the lad per- 
ished." 

But the rope was the means of saving the lives of 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 127 

several other venturesome youths later. The provision 
of the Colonel in this instance made a decided impres- 
sion on his men, and perhaps was what gave rise to an 
expression current among the privates: 

"Just tell the Colonel the place and the man that'll 
be there, and he'll tell you what's going to happen." 

Another incident which made an impression on the 
men in a somewhat different way was the occasion 
when he refused a chance to go fishing on Sunday. 
The owner of "The Three Friends," the noted boat 
suspected of filibustering, one Sunday invited Colonel 
Bryan and a number of other officers to go along with 
a select party on a fishing expedition out to the 
"banks," where plenty of red snapi)ers were to be ob- 
tained. It was a chance at which all of the other of- 
ficers jumped and the enlisted men would liave given 
almost anything they possessed for such an oppor- 
tunity. B\it Bryan declined, remained in camp and 
attended church services according to his usual cus- 
tom. 

At the first reunion and buiiquet of the Spanish- 
American war veterans of Nebraska, held at the Lin- 
dell hotel on the evening of June 4, 1908, Colonel 
Bryan, in responding to the toast, "The Test of Pa- 
triotism," spoke in part as follows: 

"Comrades: I am glad that the date of this reunion 
was fixed at a time when I could be with you. It is a 



128 BRYAN THE MAN 

great pleasure to be with you. It fills my mind with 
a flood of memories. I feel personally obligated to ex- 
Governor Silas A. Ilolcomb, the war governor, for hav- 
ing given me the opportunity to learn what I did of 
military life. There is another great soldier to whom 
I wish to do honor for his pluck and bravery, and that 
ie Lieutenant Colonel Vifquain, who was with me in 
Florida and has since died. He was a true soldier and 
a patri6t, and was loved by all who knew him, both 
in service and public and private life. 

"I like the spirit that is brought out in this reunion, 
and hope that this organization may continue to hold 
meetings of this kind, each year. But I would sug- 
gest that the next annual meeting be held during the 
summer, and that the exact time be left open until 
it can be ascertained which is to be the hottest day of 
the year. For it is my recollection that it was in the 
summer that we were in the south, and that it was hot. 
I would also suggest that in addition to holding the 
meeting on the hottest day, that the entertainment 
committee do something toward the propagation of 
flies and turn them loose at the meeting to make the 
event more realistic. 

''While we were encamped in Florida I became per- 
sonally acquainted with more flies than I have ever 
known before or since. At meal times it was a hard 
fight to keep the flies from the tables. If we were no 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 129 

more successful in fighting the Spaniards than we 
were fighting flies, we would not have been here to 
hold this reunion tonight." 

Mr. Bryan criticised the insect life which animated 
the bacon. This meat he refused to accept. He de- 
clared that the war with Spain wiped out the traces 
of the Civil war. Mr. Bryan asserted that the amount 
of sickness in the camps was appalling. He regarded 
the soldier who faced disease as patriotic as the man 
who charged the enemy on the field of battle. Mr. 
Bryan closed his address to his former comrades with 
an eloquent plea for arbitration and world-wide peace. 

Malaria attacked Mr. Bryan just before the end of 
the encampment. Mrs. Bryan reached his bedside 
Sept. 30, 1898, and nursed him back to health and 
strength, his wonderful constitution making the bat- 
tle a comparatively short one. Malarial tendencies 
troubled him for some time after he returned home. 

While serving in the army Bryan observed all the 
regulations which apply to orators. He positively re- 
fused to allude to political subjects. All this time he 
was being criticized for his political beliefs and his 
career as a soldier called forth endless comment. He 
returned no answer. In a speech at the chapel of the 
University of Nebraska he admitted that he was af- 
fiicted with "military lockjaw" and confined his re- 
marks to non-political themes. 



130 BRYAN THE MAN 

During the fall of 1898 Mr. Bryan urged that the 
regiment be mustered out of service. He declared that 
a majority of the men were sick and that the deadly 
miasma of the South was proving more fatal to the 
Northerners than Cuban bullets. 

George L. Sheldon, elected governor of Nebraska 
in the fall of 1906, was a captain in Bryan's regiment. 
Although of opposite political faith, the two men are 
firm friends. During the campaign of 1906, Mr. 
Bryan refrained from criticising his former captain. 
At a banquet last winter Mr. Bryan eulogized Sheldon 
as the highest type of a soldier and a gentleman. Shel- 
don replied, uttering similar sentiments. The com- 
radeship and esteem of their soldier days has not been 
imperiled by partisanship. 

In December, 1898, William J. Bryan left the serv- 
ice of his country and returned to the paths of peace. 
He left his regiment at Savannah, Ga. Criticism of 
his career came entirely from without his regiment. 
Respect, amounting almost to hero-worship, he in- 
herited from the men within the ranks. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

BRYAN AS A LECTURER. 

Perhaps it as a lecturer, an incomparable orator, 
that Bryan's greatest claim to fame will go down to 
posterity. The field of oratory was attractive to him 
from his earliest boyhood, but he was not what is 
called a "born orator," as is shown by the tales of 
some of his early defeats in contests for prizes. His 
indomitable perseverance, his enormous capacity for 
work and his splendid physical equipment have been 
the chief factors in his success. 

Old residents of the little village of Salem, 111., recall 
with some amusement one of Mr. Bryan's first appear- 
ances as a public speaker. The occasion was the an- 
nual "Old Settlers' Picnic," the place was a little 
grove near Salem and the year was 1880, Mr. Bryan 
went to considerable trouble to get to the grove on 
time. He got there just before the scheduled hour, 
but he found on the grounds only four men. Two 
of these were the proprietors of a lemonade stand 
placed advantageously near the speaker's stand; an- 
other had a "wheel of fortune"; and the fourth was 
the owner of the grove. Mr. Bryan did not speak that 
day. He waited for more than an hour for his audi- 
ence to appear, then gave it up and went home. 

Congressman Gilbert M. Hitchcock, of Omaha, ac- 

131 



«W"*^^ » i^'TTflY?!] 



182 BRYAN THE MAN 

cording to an interview written by James B. Morrow, 
tells an interesting story of his first meeting with 
Bryan as follows: 

"We sat side by side at a banquet in Lincoln about 
twenty years ago. I had never seen Mr. Bryan before. 
He was a young lawyer and I was a young editor and 
each of us was to respond to a toast. I remember that 
he talked about the bar and I about the press. Al- 
though we were strangers, the fellowship of stage 
fright brought us quickly together in sympathy and 
interest. I distinctly recollect that he showed no little 
nervousness of manner previous to the delivery of his 
address, which had been carefully written down on 
paper. He frequently took the manuscript from his 
pocket and read parts of it as it lay upon his lap. It 
was apparent to me that he had committed the speech 
to memory and was fortifying himself up to the very 
last minute against possible disaster. You may be 
sure he didn't break down. Instead, he spoke without 
noticeable embarrassment, having both his speech and 
his subject well in hand. 

"After he became famous throughout the world as 
an orator, I often thought of that banquet at Lin- 
coln, of his quiet agitation as he sat at my side and of 
his conscientious effort to acquit himself worthily and 
to the measure of his capacity. Mr. Bryan is not an 
accident and nothing that he has done has been acci- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 133 

dental. He is prepared for every task he undertakes." 
It has been asserted that jMr. Bryan earned $52,000 
last year from his speeches. When he was in New 
York in April, 1908, to meet his wife and daughter, 
Mrs. Leavitt, on their return from Europe, he was 
asked whether he considered that he was still a good 
representative of the common people now that he re- 
ceives a good income. In reply he said: 

"My income is derived mainly from my lecturing, 
with some additions from articles written for other 
publications, and something from my own paper, but 
the amount has been very much exaggerated. I make 
more speeches for nothing than for pay, and devote 
more time to public work than to private gain. The 
income that I have received has come from the people 
who attend my lectures and who read what I write, 
and therefore my obligation is to the whole people 
rather than to any special class. The best test of the 
effect of my income is to be found in the things that 
I advocate. My views have not changed upon public 
questions. I am contending for the same things now 
that I did then; and I think no one will deny that I 
could make more by siding with the corporate inter- 
ests that I have opposed than by lecturing. 

"My political prominence has been an advantage in 
that it has given me a larger reading circle and a 
larger audience, but I could have used the prominence 



134 BRYAN THE MAN 

in other ways to greater pecuniary advantage. For 
instance, I was offered $25,000 per year as counsel for 
a corporation, but it would have taken me out of the 
political field. By lecturing and writing I can make 
what I need in half the time and have the rest for 
public work. President Cleveland found his law in- 
come larger after he had been in the White House 
than before. So did Pre.sident Harrison. This was 
the experience of Speaker Reed after his services in 
Congress. Secretary Shaw found his services more 
valued after had been in the Cabinet. 

"Political prominence is an a.sset in any kind of 
business. I could not have turned my attention to 
anything where it would not have been an advantage, 
and, had I used all of my time in lecturing and writ- 
ing, I could have made twice as much as I have. The 
question is not whether I have made more than I did 
before I was nominated, Ijut whether I have made it 
in a legitimate way. I think no one will deny that 
my income has been derived from a legitimate source. 
The next question is whether the increase in my earn- 
ing power has changed my views on public questions. 
No one, I think, will contend that it has." 

Mr. Bryan believes he is worth from $110,000 to 
$125,000, the result of a life of hard work. 

Mr. Bryan is one of the greatest peace advocates the 
world has ever known. At the Inter-parliamentary 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 135 

Conference in London, in 1906, he made a brilliant 
speech, in which he took advanced ground in favor of 
ar'bitration of disputes between nations, and advocated 
a plan for mediation and delay, even in cases where 
the disputes might be regarded as involving national 
honor. At the Peace Conference held May 16 to 19, 
1908, in Philadelphia, under the auspices of the 
Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace Congress, he 
again expressed in most eloquent terms his views on 
this important question. A part of his address at that 
time was as follows: 

"They tell us that they must promote peace by pre- 
paredness for war. I remind you that when the 
Author of our religion was tempted to use the sword. 
He said that those who draw the sword shall perish 
by the sword. I remind you that Christ said, 'I have 
come not to d&stroy, but to save.' 

''Wc are spending one hundred millions a year on 
our armies and another hundred million on our 
navies; two hundred millions per year on our armies 
and navies. One-tenth of this sum spent in the estab- 
lishment of schools and colleges to which we would 
invite people of other lands that they might hear and 
know of our institutions and be convinced of our good 
will ; one-tenth of this expenditure so expended and in 
bringing people from all over the world and sending 
them back as friends and teachers of our civilization 



136 BRYAN THE MAN 

would do more to preserve the peace of the world than 
all the navies we will ever put upon the waters." 

In the Fourth of July address that Mr. Bryan made 
in London in 1906 he was as frank as usual in ex- 
pressing his opinions, regardless of the danger of 
rumpling the mane of the British lion. A number of 
English newspapers, commented unfavorably on his 
glowing tribute to Gladstone, for whom he always had 
fervent admiration. Nevertheless, Mr. Bryan was re- 
ceived in England with every mark of honor that 
could be bestowed upon an unofficial traveler. 

Mr. Bryan has his own definition of an orator. He 
says that an "orator is a man who says what he thinks 
and feels what he says." No one who has seen Mr. 
Bryan in oratorical action can doubt his sincerity and 
the intensity of his feelings or forget the dramatic 
arrangement of his climaxes. Brevity is another 
forcible and well developed quality. Mr. Bryan on 
the lecture platform is calm, dignified and conversa- 
tional. He assumes a plane of pleasing intimacy with 
the audience and he is dignified without being stiff 
and formal. 

His work on the Chautauqua platform and lecture 
circuit probably never will be equalled. For the last 
seven years he has been travelling incessantly in this 
work. His trips vary from three days to a month in 
length. During his travels his ''quiet days" are those 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 137 

on which he makes only two or three addresses. Some- 
times he has spoken a dozen times in a day, while his 
average allowance seems to be about six talks. His 
Sundays are entirely given to religious and philan- 
thropic work. Churches, clubs and organizations for 
the public good receive his services without price. His 
talks for the benefit of charitable organizations would 
have brought him in a small fortune, had they been 
paid for at his usual rates. 

In Lincoln he is allowed little rest, from the view- 
point of an ordinary mortal. He answers invitations 
to speak in the exact order received. On June 7, 
1908, he took part in worship in the morning and 
addressed the Woodmen in the afternoon, delivering 
the Memorial day address. That evening he delivered 
an address at a little church near Sixth and D streets. 
The building accommodates only a few hundred peo- 
ple. Seven or eight thousand wanted to go, but could 
not get in. Nevertheless, the 'Trince of Peace" was 
spoken just as feelingly and eloquently before the 
little congregation as if a certified check from the box 
office nestled in the vest-pocket of the lecturer. 

Now and then the avaricious are inclined to "dick- 
er." With these Mr. Bryan spends little time. He 
realizes that the average man does not realize that to 
be a consummate orator requires the effort of a life- 
time. An amusing incident occurred not long ago. 



138 BRYAN THE MAN 

The shrewd managers of an Illinois fair wanted Mr. 
Bryan to speak. His itinerary had been so arranged 
that he must pass through this particular town. The 
managers remembered the time when Mr, Bryan de- 
livered addresses in Illinois without any great finan- 
cial remuneration. They were surprised, therefore, 
when they were informed by the management of the 
lecture bureau that Mr. Bryan would stop and deliver 
an address for $300. They penned a protest. They 
were told that Mr. Bryan would be content with a per- 
centage of the receipts. 

When the time came for the lecture, the fair man- 
agers found that the seating arrangements were lu- 
dicrously inadequate. People came from all direc- 
tions. The attendance was embarrassingly satisfac- 
tory. When they settled, they paid Mr. Bryan 
$735.50. After the lecturer had gone on his way, 
one of the promoters of the fair admitted that the 
management had been fooled. 

"The flat rate would have been better for us," he 
said. 

The following comments on Mr. Bryan's speaking 
were made in an article in The World's Work for 
May, 1908, by Henry Jones Ford, lecturer at Johns 
Hopkins University: 

''Mr. Bryan's voice is a wonderful organ of expres- 
sion. It is mellow, rather than strong or loud, but it 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 139 

has a thrilling quality that carries its tones distinctly 
through the reverberating murmurs of a crowded hall 
or the straggling noises of an open-air mass-meeting. 
His manner, while glowing with earnestness, is com- 
posed, and he speaks without haste, strain or flurry. 
His 'gestures are simple and spoaitaneous, and he 
makes the most of what he says by distinct articula- 
tion and appropriate emphasis. While every effort is 
calculated, he presents the appearance of a man pos- 
sessed by his subject and entirely absorbed by the 
effort of relieving a full heart and a teeming mind by 
direct, sincere communication to his fellow-men. 
It may as well be remarked at once that 
Mr. Bryan's speeches, when read, produce a very dif- 
ferent effect from what they do when heard." 

Millions know Bryan as a lecturer who have hardly 
heard of him as a partisan. A political speech is al- 
ways accompanied by a division of opinion. There can 
be but one verdict when the best views of the age are 
condensed into a literary masterpiece and delivered 
in an oratorical style which is inimitable. 

Students of the American language and literature 
have expressed the opinion that Bryan's non-political 
addresses will add to the glory of his career long after 
the partisan struggles of the time have been engulfed 
in eternal oblivion. 

"I would rather be the author of th^ 'Prince of 



140 BRYAN THE MAN 

Peace,'" declared one well-known critic, "than be 
President of the United StatecB." 

Bryan has addressed enthusiastic crowds at water- 
tank stations; he has spoken in hamlets, in school- 
houses and in churches. Clubs, peace conferences and 
congresses have been his hosts. He was an invited 
guest at the conference called in May, 1908, by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt to outline plans for the conservation 
of the natural resources of the country. Besides, he 
has addressed shouting conventions and demonstrative 
assemblages, when his auditors numbered many thou- 
sands. In all he has acquitted himself with credit. 
And among the princes and potentates of the earth, 
his wonderful voice has cheered, amused and thrilled, 
his brilliant qualities arousing the admiration of the 
Old World for the genius of the New. 



CHAPTER XV. 

BRYAN AS A PULPIT ORATOR. 

During the last few years Mr. Bryan has spoken in 
hundreds of churches and appeared before religious 
organizations in all parts of the world. As a pulpit 
speaker he is particularly pleasing. His hearers have 
been enthusiastic in their praise, 

"The Prince of Peace" is regarded as a masterpiece 
of religious thought and sentiment. The production 
is lacking in the brilliant phrasing which character- 
izes the political masterpieces of the Fairview orator, 
but it abounds in tender religious sentiment and lofty 
hopefulness. "The Prince of Peace" has been deliv- 
ered hundreds of times. At the urgent request of 
many admirers of "The Prince of Peace," the lecture 
is included in this volume. 

THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 

"I offer no apology for speaking upon a religious 
theme, for it is the most universal of all themes. If 
I addressed you upon the subject of law I might inter- 
est the lawyers; if I discussed the science of medicine 
I might interest the physicians; in like manner mer- 
chants might be interested in a talk on commerce, and 
farmers in a discussion of agriculture; but none of 
these subjects appeals to all. Even the science of gov- 
ernment, though broader than any profession or occu- 

141 



142 BRYAN THE MAN 

pation, does not embrace the whole sum of life, and 
those who think upon it differ so among themselves 
that I could not speak upon the subject so as to please 
a part without offending others. While to me the 
science of government is intensely absorbing, I recog- 
nize that" the most important things in life lie outside 
of the realm of government and that more depends 
upon what the individual does for himself than upon 
what the government does or can do for him. Men 
can be miserable under the best government and they 
can be happy under the worst government. 

"Government affects but a part of the life which we 
live here and does not touch at all the life beyond, 
w^hile religion touches the infinite circle of existence 
as well as the small arc of that circle which we spend 
on earth. No greater theme, therefore, can engage 
our attention, 

"Man is a religious being; the heart instinctively 
•seeks for a God. Whether he worships on the banks 
of the Ganges, prays with his face upturned to the 
sun, kneels toward Mecca or, regarding all space as a 
temple, communes with the Heavenly Father accord- 
ing to the Christian creed, man is essentially devout. 

"There are honest doubters whose sincerity we rec- 
ognize and respect, but occasionally I find young men 
who think it smart to be skeptical; they talk as if it 
were an evidence of larger intelligence to scoff at 
creeds and refuse to connect themselves with churches. 
They call themselves 'liberal,' as if a Christian were 
narrow-minded. To these young men I desire to ad- 
dress myself. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 143 

"Even some older people profess to regard religion 
as a superstition, pardonable in the ignorant but un- 
worthy of the educated — a mental state which one 
can and should outgrow. Those who hold this view 
look down with mild contempt upon such as give to 
religion a definite place in their thoughts and lives. 
They assume an intellectual superiority and often take 
little pains to conceal the assumption. Tolstoy ad- 
ministers to the 'cultured crowd' (the words quoted 
are his) a severe rebuke when he declares that the 
religious sentiment rests not upon a superstitious fear 
of the invisible forces of nature, but upon man's con- 
sciousness of his finiteness amid an infinite universe 
and of his sinfulness ; and this consciousness, the great 
philosopher adds, man can never outgrow. Tolstoy is 
right; man recognizes how limited are his own powers 
and how vast is the universe, and he leans upon the 
arm that is stronger than his. Man feels the weight 
of his sins and looks for One who is sinless. 

''Religion has been defined as the relation which 
man fixes between himself and his God, and morality 
as the outward manifestation of this relation. Every 
one, by the time he reaches maturity, has fixed some 
relation between himself and God and no material 
change in this relation can take place without a revo- 
lution in the man, for this relation is the most potent 
influence that acts upon a human life. 

"Religion is the basis of morality in the individual 
and in the group of individuals. Materialists have at- 
tempted to build up a system of morality upon the 
basis of enlightened self-interest. They would have 



144 BRYAN THE MAN 

man figure out by mathematics that it pays him to 
abstain from wrong doing; they would even inject an 
element of selfishness into altruism, but the moral 
system elaborated by the materialists has several de- 
fects. First, its virtues are borrowed from moral 
systems based upon religion; second, as it rests upon 
argument rather than upon authority, it does not ap- 
peal to the young and by the time the young are able 
to follow their reason they have already become set in 
their ways. Our laws do not permit a young man to 
dispose of real estate until he is twenty-one. Why 
this restraint? Because his reason is not mature; and 
yet a man's life is largely moulded by the environ- 
ment of his youth. Third, one never knows just how 
much of his decision is due to reason and how much 
is due to passion or to selfish interest. We recognize 
the bias of self-interest when we exclude from the jury 
every man, no matter how reasonable or upright he 
may be, who has a pecuniary interest in the result of 
the trial. And, fourth, one whose morality is based 
upon a nice calculation of benefits to be secured spends 
time figuring that he should spend in action. Those 
who keep a book account of their good deeds seldom 
do enough good to justify keeping books. 

"Morality is the power of endurance in man; and 
a religion which teaches personal responsibility to God 
gives strength to morality. There is a powerful re- 
straining influence in the belief that an all-seeing eye 
scrutinizes every thought and word and act of the in- 
dividual. 

"There is a wide difference between the man who 




MH I5UYAX IX FRONT OF THE OFFICE OF THK CO.MMOXEIt. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT, 145 

is trying to conform to a standard of morality about 
him and the man who is endeavoring to make his life 
approximate to a divine standard. The former at- 
tempts to live up to the standard if it is above him, 
and down to it if it is below him — and if he is doing 
right only when others are looking he is sure to find 
a time when he thinks he is unobserved, and then he 
takes a vacation and falls. One needs the inner 
strength which comes with the conscious presence of 
a personal God. If those who are thus fortified some- 
times yield to temptation how helpless and hopeless 
must those be who rely upon their own strength alone ! 

"There are difficulties to be encountered in religion, 
but there are difficulties to be encountered everywhere. 
I passed through a period of skepticism when I was 
in college, and I have been glad ever since that I be- 
came a member of the church before I left home for 
college, for it helped me during those trying days. 
The college days cover the dangerous period in the 
young man's life; it is when he is just coming into 
possession of his powers — when he feels stronger than 
he ever feels afterwards and thinks he knows more 
than he ever does know. 

"It was at this period that I was confused by the 
different theories of creation. But I examined these 
theories and found that they all assumed something 
to begin with. The nebular hypothesis, for instance, 
assumes that matter and force existed — matter in par- 
ticles infinitely fine and each particle separated from 
every other particle by space infinitely great. Begin- 
ning with this assumption, force working on matter — 



146 BRYAN THE MAN 

according to this hypothesis — creates a universe. Well, 
I have a right to assume, and I prefer to assume a 
Designer back of the design — a Creator back of crea- 
tion ; and no matter how long you draw out the process 
of creation, so long as God stands back of it you can 
not shake my faith in Jehovah. In Genesis it is writ- 
ten that, in the beginning, God created the heavens 
and the earth, and I can stand on that proposition un- 
til I find some theory of creation that goes farther 
back than 'the beginning.' 

"I do not carry the doctrine of evolution as far as 
some do; I have not yet been able to convince my- 
self that man is a lineal descendant of the lower ani- 
mals. I do not mean to find fault with you if you 
want to accept it; all I mean to say is that while you 
may trace your ancestry back to the monkey if you 
find pleasure or pride in doing so, you shall not con- 
nect me with your family tree without more evidence 
than has yet been produced. It is true that man, in 
some physical qualities, resembles the beast, but man 
has a mind as w^ell as a body, and a soul as well as a 
mind. The mind is greater than the body and the 
soul is greater than the mind, and I object to having 
man's pedigree traced on one-third of him only — 
and that the lowest third. Fairbairn lays down a 
sound proposition when he says that it is not suffi- 
cient to explain man as an animal; it is necessary to 
explain man in history — and the Darwinian theory 
does not do this. The ape, according to this theory, 
is older than man, and yet he is still an ape, while 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 147 

man is the author of the marvelous civilization which 
we see about us. 

"One does not escape from mystery, however, by 
accepting this theory, for it does not explain the origin 
of life. When the follower of Darwin has traced the 
germ of life back to the lowest form in which it ap- 
pears — and to follow him one must exercise more 
faith than religion calls for — he finds that scientists 
differ. Some believe that the first germ of life came 
from another planet and others hold that it was the 
result of spontaneous generation. 

"If I were compelled to accept one of these theories 
I would prefer the first, for if we can chase the germ 
of life off this planet and get it out into space we can 
guess the rest of the way and no one can contradict 
us, but if we accept the doctrine of spontaneous gen- 
eration we cannot explain why spontaneous ceased to 
act after the first germ was created. 

"Go back as far as we may, we cannot escape from 
the creative act, and it is just as easy for me to believe 
that God created man as he is, as to believe that, mil- 
lions of years ago. He created a germ of life and en- 
dowed it with powder to develop into all that we see 
today. But I object to the Darwinian theory, until 
more conclusive proof is produced, because I fear we 
shall lose the consciousness of God's presence in our 
daily life, if we must assume that through all the 
ages no spiritual force has touched the life of man or 
shaped the destiny of nations. But there is another 
objection. The Darwinian theory represents man 
as reaching his present perfection by the operation of 



148 BRYAN THE MAN 

the law of hate — the merciless law by which the strong 
crowd out and kill off the weak. If this is the law of 
our development then, if there is any logic that can 
bind the human mind, we shall turn backward toward 
the beast in proportion as we substitute the law of 
love. How can hatred be the law of development 
when nations have advanced in proportion as they 
have departed from that law and adopted the law of 
love? 

''But while I do not accept the Darwinian theory I 
shall not quarrel with you about it; I only refer to it 
to remind you that it does not solve the mystery of 
life or explain human progress. I fear that some have 
accepted it in the hope of escaping from the miracle, 
but why should the miracle frighten us? It bothered 
me once, and I am inclined to think that it is one of 
the test questions with the Christian. 

"Christ cannot be separated from the miraculous; 
His birth. His ministrations, and His resurrection, all 
involve the miraculous, and the change which His 
religion works in the human heart is a continuing 
miracle. Eliminate the miracles and Christ becomes 
merely a human being and His gospel is stripped of 
divine authority. 

"The miracle raises two questions: 'Can God per- 
form a miracle?' and, 'Would He want to?' The 
first is easy to answer. A God who can make a world 
can do anything He wants to do with it. The power 
to perform miracles is necessarily implied in the 
power to create. But would God want to perform a 
miracle? — this is the question which has given most 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 149 

of the trouble. The more I have considered it the less 
inclined I am to answer in the negative. To say that 
God would not perform a miracle is to assume a more 
intimate knowledge of God's plans and purposes than 
I can claim to have. I will not deny that God does 
perform a miracle or may perform one merely because 
I do not know how or why He does it. The fact that 
we are constantly learning of the existence of new 
forces suggests the possibility that God may operate 
through forces yet unknown to us, and the mysteries 
with which we deal every day warn me that faith is 
as necessary as sight. Who would have credited a 
century ago the stories that are now told of the won- 
der-working electricity? For ages man had known 
the lightning, but only to fear it; now, this invisible 
current is generated by a man-made machine, im- 
prisoned in a man-made wire, and made to do the bid- 
ding of man. We are even able to dispense with the 
wire and hurl words through space, and the X-ray 
has enabled us to look through substances which were 
supposed, until recently, to exclude all light. The 
miracle is not more mysterious than many of the 
things with which man now deals — it is simply differ- 
ent. The immaculate conception is not more mys- 
terious than any other conception — it is simply un- 
like ; nor is the resurrection of Christ more mysterious 
than the myriad resurrections which mark each an- 
nual seed-time. 

'Tt is sometimes said that God could not suspend 
one of His laws without stopping the Universe, but 
do we not suspend or overcome the law of gravitation 



150 BRYAN THE MAN 

every day? Every time we move a foot or lift a 
weight, we temporarily interfere with the operation 
of the most universal of natural laws, and yet the 
world is not disturbed. 

"Science has taught us so many things that we are 
tempted to conclude that we know everything, but 
there is really a great unknown which is still unex- 
plored and that which we have learned ought to in- 
crease our reverence rather than our egotism. Science 
has disclosed some of the machinery of the universe, 
but science has not yet revealed to us the great secret 
— the secret of life. It is to be found in every blade 
of grass, in every insect, in every bird and in every 
animal, as well as in man. Six thousand years of 
recorded history and yet we know no more about the 
secret of life than they knew in the beginning. We 
live, we plan ; we have our hopes, our fears ; and yet in 
a moment a change may come over any one of us and 
this body will become a mass of lifeless clay. What 
is it that, having, we live and, having not, we are as 
the clod? We know not, and yet the progress of the 
race and the civilization which we now behold are the 
work of men and women who have not solved the 
mystery of their own lives. 

"And our food, must we understand it before we 
eat it? If we refused to eat anything until we could 
understand the mystery of its growth, we would die 
of starvation. But mystery does not bother us in the 
dining room; it is only in the church that it is an 
obstacle. 

"I was eating a piece of watermelon some months 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 151 

ago and was struck with its beauty. I took some of 
the seed and dried them and weighed them, and found 
that it would require some five thousand seed to weigh 
a pound. And then I applied mathematics to that 
forty pound melon. One of these seeds, put into the 
ground, when warmed by the sun and moistened by 
the rain, goes to work ; it gathers from somewhere two 
hundred thousand times its own weight and, forcing 
this raw material through a tiny stem, constructs a 
watermelon. It covers the outside with a coating of 
green ; inside of the green it puts a layer of white, and 
within the white a core of red, and all through the 
red it scatters seeds each one capable of continuing 
the work of reproduction. Where did that little seed 
get its tremendous power? Where did it find its col- 
oring matter? How did it collect its flavoring ex- 
tract? How did it build a watermelon? Until you 
can explain a watermelon, do not be too sure that you 
can set limits to the power of the Almighty or say 
just what He would do or how He would do it. I can 
not explain the watermelon, but I eat it and enjoy it. 
''Everything that grows tells a like story of infinite 
power. Why should I deny that a divine hand fed 
a multitude with a few loaves and fishes when I see 
hundreds of millions fed every year by a hand w^hich 
converts the seeds scattered over the field into an 
abundant harvest? We know that food can be multi- 
plied in a few months' time; shall we deny the power 
of the Creator to eliminate the element of time when 
we have gone so far in eliminating the element of 
space? 



152 BRYAN THE MAN 

''But there is something even more wonderful still 
— the mysterious change that takes place in the hu- 
man heart when the man begins to hate the things 
he loved and to love the things he hated — the mar- 
velous transformation that takes place in the man 
who, before the change, would have sacrificed the 
world for his own advancement, but who, after the 
change, would give his life for a principle and es- 
teem it a privilege to make sacrifice for his convictions. 
What greater miracle than this, that converts a selfish, 
self-centered human being into a center from which 
good influences flow out in every direction! And yet 
this miracle has been wrought in the heart of each 
one of us — or may be wrought. — and we have seen it 
wrought in the hearts of those about us. No, living 
in the midst of mystery and miracles I shall not allow 
either to deprive me of the benefits of the Christian 
religion. 

"Some of those who question the miracle also ques- 
not accord the theory of atonement; they assert that 
it does not accord with their idea of justice for one to 
die for others. Let each one bear his own sins and 
the punishments due for them, they say. The doc- 
trine of vicarious suffering is not a new one; it is as 
old as the race. That one should suffer for others is 
one of the most familiar of principles and we see the 
principle illustrated every day of our lives. Take the 
family, for instance; from the day the mother's first 
child is born, for twenty-five or thirty years they are 
scarcely out of her waking thoughts. She sacrifices 
for them, she surrenders herself to them. Is it because 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 153 

she expects them to pay her back? Fortunate for the 
parent and fortunate for the child if the latter has an 
opportunity to repay in part the debt it owes. But 
no child can compensate a parent for a parent's care. 
In the course of nature the debt is paid, not to the 
parent, but to the next generation, each generation 
suffering and sacrificing for the one following. 

"Nor is this confined to the family. Every step in 
advance has been made possible by those who have 
been willing to sacrifice for posterity. Freedom of 
speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience 
and free government have all been won for the world 
by those who were willing to make sacrifices for their 
fellows. So well established is this doctrine that we 
do not regard any one as great unless he recognizes 
how unimportant his life is in comparison with the 
problems with which he deals. 

"I find proof that man was made in the image of 
his Creator in the fact that, throughout the centuries, 
man has been willing to die that blessings denied to 
him might be enjoyed by his children, his children's 
children and the world. 

'The seeming paradox: 'He that saveth his life 
shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake 
shall find it,' has an application wider than that usu- 
ally given to it ; it is an epitome of history. Those 
who live only for themselves live little lives, but those 
who give themselves for the advancement of things 
greater than themselves find a larger life than the one 
surrendered. Wendell Phillips gave expression to the 
same idea when he said: 'How prudently most men 



154 BRYAN THE MAN 

sink into nameless graves, while now and then a few 
forget themselves into immortality.' 

"Instead of being an unnatural plan, the plan of 
salvation is in perfect harmony with human nature 
as we understand it. Sacrifice is the language of love, 
and Christ, in suffering for the world, adopted the 
only means of reaching the heart, and this can be 
demonstrated, not only by theory but by experience, 
for the story of His life. His teachings, His suffer- 
ings, and His death has been translated into every 
language and everywhere it has touched the heart. 

*'But if I were going to present an argument in 
favor of the divinity of Christ, I would not begin with 
miracles or mystery or theory of atonement. I would 
begin as Carnegie Simpson begins in his book en- 
titled, 'The Fact of Christ.' Commencing with the 
fact that Christ lived, he points out that one cannot 
contemplate this undisputed fact without feeling that 
in some way this fact is related to those now living. 
He says that one can read of Alexander, of Caesar or 
of Napoleon, and not feel that it is a matter of per- 
sonal concern; but that when one reads that Christ 
lived and how He lived and how He died he feels 
that somehow there is a chord that stretches from that 
life to his. As he studies the character of Christ he 
becomes conscious of certain virtues which stand out 
in bold relief — purity, humility, a forgiving spirit 
and an unfathomable love. The author is correct. 
Christ presents an example of purity in thought and 
life, and man, conscious of his own imperfections and 
grieved over his shortcomings, finds inspiration in 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 155 

One who was tempted in all points like as we are, and 
yet without sin. I am not sure but that we can find 
just here a way of determining whether one possesses 
the true spirit of a Christian. If he finds in the sin- 
lessness of Christ an inspiration and a stimulus to 
greater effort and higher living, he is indeed a fol- 
lower; if, on the other hand, he resents the reproof 
which the purity of Christ offers he is likely to ques- 
tion the divinity of Christ in order to excuse himself 
for not being a follower. 

"Humility is a rare virtue. If one is rich he is apt 
to be proud of his riches; if he has distinguished an- 
cestry, he is apt to be proud of his lineage; if he is 
well educated, he is apt to be proud of his learning. 
Some one has suggested that if one becomes humble, 
he soon becomes proud of his humility. Christ, how- 
ever, possessed of all power, was the very personifica- 
tion of humility. 

"The most difficult of all the virtues to cultivate is 
the forgiving spirit. Eevenge seems to be natural to 
the human heart; to want to get even with an enemy 
is a common sin. It has even been popular to boast 
of vindictiveness; it was once inscribed on a monu- 
ment to a hero that he had repaid both friends and 
enemies more than he had received. This was not the 
spirit of Christ. He taught forgiveness and in that in- 
comparable prayer which He left as a model for our 
petitions. He made our willingness to forgive the 
measure by which we may claim forgiveness. He not 
only taught forgiveness but He exemplified His teach- 
ings in His life. When those who persecuted Him 



156 BRYAN THE MAN 

brought Him to the most disgraceful of all deaths, 
His spirit of forgiveness rose above His sufferings and 
He prayed, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do I' 

"But love is the foundation of Christ's creed. The 
world had known love before; parents had loved chil- 
dren and children, parents; husband had loved wife 
and wife, husband; and friend had loved friend, but 
Jesus gave a ne\^^ definition of love. His love was as 
boundless as the sea; its limits were so far-flung that 
even an enemy could not travel beyond it. Other teach- 
ers sought to regulate the lives of their followers by 
rule and formula, but Christ's plan was, first to purify 
the heart and then to leave love to direct the footsteps. 

''What conclusion is to be drawn from the life, the 
teachings and the death of this historic figure? Reared 
in a carpenter shop ; with no knowledge of literature, 
save Bible literature; with no acquaintance with phi- 
losophers living or with the writings of sages dead, 
this young man gathered disciples about him, pro- 
mulgated a higher code of morals than the world had 
ever known before, and proclaiming Himself the Mes- 
siah, He taught and performed miracles for a few 
brief months and then was crucified; His disciples 
were scattered and many of them put to death; His 
claims were disputed, His resurrection denied and His 
followers persecuted, and yet from this beginning His 
religion has spread until millions take His name with 
reverence upon their lips, and thousands have been 
willing to die rather than surrender the faith which 
He put into their hearts. How shall we account for 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 157 

him? 'What think ye of Christ?' It is easier to be- 
lieve Him divine than to explain in any other way 
what He said and did and was. And I have greater 
faith even than before since I have visited the Orient 
and witnessed the successful contest which Christian- 
ity is waging against the religions and philosophies of 
the east, 

"I was thinking a few years ago of the Christmas 
which was then approaching and of Him in whose 
honor the day is celebrated. I recalled the message, 
'Peace on earth, good will to men,' and then my 
thoughts ran back to the prophecy uttered centuries 
before His birth, in which He was described as the 
Prince of Peace. To re-inforce my memory I re- 
read the prophecy and found immediately following 
a verse which I had forgotten — a verse which de- 
clares that of the increase of His peace and govern- 
ment there shall be no end, for, adds Isaiah, 'He 
shall judge His people with justice and with judg- 
ment.' Thinking of the prophecy I have selected this 
theme that I may present some of the reasons which 
lead me to believe that Christ has fully earned the 
title, 'The Prince of Peace,' and that in the years 
to come it will be more and more applied to Him. 
Faith in Him brings peace to the heart and His teach- 
ings, when applied will bring peace between man and 
man. And if he can bring peace to each heart, and 
if His creed will bring peace throughout the earth, 
who will deny His right to be called 'The Prince of 
Peace?' 

"All the world is in search of peace; every heart 



158 BRYAN THE MAN 

that ever beat has sought for peace, and may have 
been the methods employed to secure it. Some have 
thought to purchase it with riches and they have la- 
bored to secure wealth hoping to find peace when they 
were able to go where they pleased and buy what they 
liked. Of those who have endeavored to purchase 
peace with money, the large majority have failed to 
secure the money. But what has been the experience 
of those who have been successful in accumulating 
money? They all tell the same story, viz., that they 
spent the first half of their lives trying to get money 
from others, and the last half trying to keep others 
from getting their money, and that they found peace 
in neither half. Some have even reached the point 
where they find difficulty in getting people to accept 
their money; and I know of no better indication of 
the ethical awakening in this country than the in- 
creasing tendency to scrutinize the methods of money- 
making. A long step in advance will have been taken 
when religious, educational and charitable institutions 
refuse to condone immoral methods in business and 
leave the possessor of ill-gotten gains to learn the lone- 
liness of life when one prefers money to morals. 

''Some have sought peace in social distinction, but 
whether they have been within the charmed circle and 
fearful lest they might fall out, or outside and hope- 
ful that they might get in, they have not found 
peace. 

"Some have thought, vain thought! to find peace in 
political prominence; but whether office comes by 
birth, as in monarchies, or by election, as in republics, 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 159 

it does not bring peace. An office is conspicuous only 
when few can occupy it. Only when few in a gen- 
eration can hope to enjoy an honor, do we call it a 
great honor. I am glad that our Heavenly Father did 
not make the peace of the human heart depend upon 
the accumulation of wealth, or upon the securing of 
social or political distinction, for in either case but 
few could have enjoyed it. But when He made peace 
the reward of a conscience void of offense toward God 
and man, He put it within the reach of all. The 
poor can secure it as easily as the rich, the social out- 
cast as freely as the leader of society and the humblest 
citizen equally with those who wield political power. 

"To those who have grown gray in the faith I need 
not speak of, the peace to be found in the belief in an 
overruling Providence. Christ taught that our lives 
are precious in the sight of God, and poets have taken 
up to the theme and woven it into immortal verse. No 
uninspired writer has expressed the idea more beauti- 
fully than William Cullen Bryant, in the 'Ode to a 
Waterfowl.' After following the wanderings of the 
bird of passage as it seeks first its northern and then 
its southern home, he concludes: 

"Thou art gone; the abyss of heaven 

Hath swaUowed up thy form, but on my heart 
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
And shall not soon depart. 

"He who, from zone to zone, 

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone. 
Will lead my steps aright." 



160 BRYAN THE MAN 

. "Christ promoted peace by giving us assurance that 
a line of communication can be established between 
the Father above and the child below. And who will 
measure the consolation that has been brought to 
troubled hearts by the hour of prayer? 

"And immortality! Who will estimate the peace 
which a belief in a future life has brought to the sor- 
rowing? You may talk to the young about death 
ending all, for life is full and hope is strong, but 
preach not this doctrine to the mother who stands by 
the deathbed of her babe or to one who is within the 
shadow of a great affliction. When I was a young 
man I wrote to Colonel Ingersoll and asked him for 
his views on God and immortality. His secretary 
answ^ered that the great infidel was not at home, but 
enclosed a copy of a speech which covered my ques- 
tion. I scanned it with eagerness and found that he had 
expressed himself about as follows: 'I do not say that 
there is no God, I simply say I do not know. I do not 
say that there is no life beyond the grave; I simply 
say I do not know.' And from that day to this, I 
have not been able to understand how any one could 
find pleasure in taking from any human heart a living 
faith and substituting therefor the cold cheerless doc- 
trine, *I do not know.' 

"Christ gave us proof of immortality and yet it 
Avould hardly seem necessary that one should rise from 
the dead to convince us that the grave is not the end. 
To every created thing God has given a tongue that 
proclaims a resurrection. 

"If the Father deigns to touch with divine power 




5 ^ 




FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. I6l 

the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn and 
to make it burst forth from its prison walls, will He 
leave neglected in the earth the soul of man, made in 
the image of his Creator? If He stoops to give to the 
rose bush, whose withered blossoms float upon the 
autumn breeze, the sweet assurance of another spring- 
time, will He refuse the words of hope to the sons 
of men when the frosts of winter come? If matter, 
mute and inanimate, though changed by the forces 
of nature into a multitude of forms can never die, will 
the spirit of man suffer annihilation when it has paid 
a brief visit like a royal guest to this tenement of clay? 
No, I am as sure that there is another life as I am tht»t 
I live today! 

"In Cairo I secured a few grains of wheat that had 
slumbered for more than three thousand years in an 
Egyptian tomb. As I looked at them this thought 
came unto my mind; if one of those grains had been 
planted out on the banks of the Nile the year after it 
grew, and all its lineal descendants planted and re- 
planted from that time until now, its progeny would 
today be sufRciently numerous to feed the teeming 
millions of the world. There is in the grain of wheat 
an invisible something which has power to discard the 
body that we see, and from earth and air fashion a 
new body so much like the old one that we cannot 
tell the one from the other. If this invisible germ 
of life in the grain of wheat can thus pass unimpaired 
through three thousand resurrections, I shall not 
doubt that my soul has power to clothe itself with a 



162 BRYAN THE MAN 

body suited to its new existence when this earthly 
frame has crumbled into dust. 

"A belief in immortality not only consoles the in- 
dividual but it exerts a powerful influence in bringing 
peace between individuals. If one really thinks that 
man dies as the brute dies, he may yield to the tempta- 
tion to do injustice to his neighbor when the circum- 
stances are such as to promise security from detection. 
But if one really expects to meet again, and live 
eternally with those whom he knows today, he is re- 
strained from evil deeds by the fear of endless re- 
morse. We do not know what rewards are in store 
for us or what punishments may be reserved, but if 
there were no other punishment it would be enough 
for one who deliberately and ' consciously wrongs an- 
other to have to live forever in the company of the 
person wronged, and have his littleness and selfishness 
laid bare. I repeat, a belief in immortality must 
exert a powerful influence in astablishing justice be- 
tween men and thus laying the foundation for peace. 

"Again, Christ deserves to be called the Prince of 
Peace because He has given us a measure of greatness 
which promotes peace. When His disciples disputed 
among themselves as to which should be greatest in 
the Kingdom of Heaven, He rebuked them and said: 
'Let him who would be chiefest among you be the 
servant of all.' Service is the measure of greatness; it 
always has been true; it is true today and it always 
will be true, that he is greatest who does the most of 
good. And yet, what a revolution it will work in this 
old world when this standard becomes the standard of 



PROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 163 

life. Nearly all of our controversies and combats arise 
from the fact that we are trying to get something from 
each other — there will be peace when our aim is to do 
something for each other. Our enmities and animosi- 
ties arise from the effects to get as much as possible 
out of the world — there will be peace when our en- 
deavor is to put as much as possible into the world. 
Society will take an immeasurable step toward peace 
when it estimates a citizen by his output rather than 
by his income, and gives the crown of its approval to 
the one who makes the largest contribution to the 
welfare of all. It is the glory of the Christian ideal 
that, while it is within sight of the weakest and the 
lowliest, it is yet so high that the best and the noblest 
are kept with their faces turned ever upward. 

"Christ has also led the way to peace by giving us 
a formula for the propagation of good. Not all of 
those who have really desired to do good have em- 
ployed the Christian method — not all Christians even 
in all the history of the human race, but two methods 
have been employed. The first is the forcible method. 
A man has an idea which he thinks is good; he tells 
his neighbors about it and they do not like it. This 
makes him angry and, seizing a club, he attempts to 
make them like it. One trouble about this rule is 
that it works both ways; when a man starts out to 
compel his neighbors to think as he does, he generally 
finds them willing to accept the challenge and they 
spend so much time in trying to coerce each other 
that they have no time left to be of service to each 
other. 



164 BRYAN THE MAN 

"The other is the Bible plan — be not overcome of 
evil but overcome evil with good. And there is no 
other way of overcoming evil. I am not much of a 
farmer — I get more credit for my farming than I de- 
serve, and my little farm receives more advertising 
than it is entitled to. But I am farmer enough to 
know that if I cut down weeds they will spring up 
again, and I know that if I plant something there 
which has more vitality than the weeds, I shall not 
only get rid of the constant cutting but have the bene- 
fit of the crop besides. 

"In order that there might be no mistake about 
His plan of propagating good, Christ went into de- 
tail and laid down emphasis upon the value of ex- 
ample — 'so live that others seeing your good works 
may be constrained to glorify your Father which is in 
Heaven.' There is no human influence so polent for 
good as that which goes out from an upright life. A 
sermon may be answered; the arguments presented in 
a speech may be disputed, but no one can answer a 
Christian life — it is the unanswerable argument in 
favor of our religion. 

"It may be a slow process — this conversion of the 
world by the silent influence of a noble example, but 
it is the only sure one, and the doctrine applies to na- 
tions as well as to individuals. The Gospel of the 
Prince of Peace gives us the only hope that the world 
ha.s — and it is an increasing hope — of the substitu- 
tion of reason for the arbitrament of force in the set- 
tlement of international disputes. 

"But Christ has given us a platform more funda- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 165 

mental than any political party has ever written. We 
are interested in platforms; we attend conventions, 
sometimes traveling long distances; we have wordy 
wars over the phraseology of various planks and then 
we wage earnest campaigns to secure the endorsement 
of these platforms at the polls. But the platform 
given to the world by the Nazarene is more far-reach- 
ing and more comprehensive than any platform even 
written by the convention of any party in any coun- 
try. When He condensed into one commandment 
those of the ten which relate of man's duty toward his 
fellows and enjoined upon us the rule, 'Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself,' He presented a plan for 
the solution of all the problems that now vex society 
or may hereafter arise. Other remedies may palliate 
or postpone the day of settlement, but this is all-suffi- 
cient and the reconcilation which it effects is a perma- 
nent one. 

''If I were to attempt to apply this thought to vari- 
ous questions which are at issue, I might be accused of 
entering the domain of partisan politics, but I may 
safely apply it to two great problems. First, let us 
consider the question of capital and labor. This is not 
a transient issue or a local one. It engages the atten- 
tion of the people of all countries and has appeared 
in every age. The immediate need in this country is 
arbitration, for neither side to the controversy can 
be trusted to deal with absolute justice, if allowed un- 
disputed control; but arbitration, like a court, is a last 
resort. It would be better if the relations between 
employer and employe were such as to make arbitra- 



166 BRYAN THE MAN 

tion unnecessary. Just in proportion as men recog- 
nize their kinship to each other and deal with each 
other in the spirit of brotherhood will friendship and 
harmony be secured. Both employer and employe 
need to cultivate the spirit which follows from obe- 
dience to the great commandment. 

"The second problem to which I would apply this 
platform of peace is that which relates to the accumu- 
lation of wealth. We cannot much longer delay con- 
sideration of the ethics of money-making. That many 
of the enormous fortunes which have been accumu- 
lated in the last quarter of a century are now held by 
men who have given to society no adequate service in 
return for the money secured is now generally recog- 
nized. While legislation can and should protect the 
public from predatory wealth, a more effective remedy 
will be found in the cultivation of a public opinion 
which will substitute a higher ideal than the one 
which tolerates the enjoyment of unearned gains. No 
man who really knows what brotherly love is will de- 
sire to take advantage of his neighbor, and the con- 
science when not seared will admonish against injus- 
tice. My faith in the future rests upon the belief that 
Christ's teachings are being more studied today than 
ever before, and that with this larger study will come 
an application of those teachings to the every day life 
of the world. In former times men read that Christ 
came to bring life and immortality to light and placed 
the emphasis upon immortality; now they are study- 
ing Christ's relation to human life. In former years 
many thought to prepare themselves for future bliss 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 167 

by a life of seclusion here ; now they are learning that 
they cannot follow in the footsteps of the Master un- 
less they go about doing good. Christ declared that 
He came that we might have life and have it more 
abundantly. The world is learning that Christ came 
not to narrow life, but to enlarge it — to fill it with 
purpose, earnestness and happiness. 

"But this Prince of Peace promises not only peace 
but strength. Some have thought His teachings fit 
only for the weak and the timid and unsuited to men 
of vigor, energy and ambition. Nothing could be far- 
ther from the truth. Only the man of faith can be 
courageous, confident that he fights on the side of 
Jehovah he doubts not the success of his cause. What 
matters it whether he shares in the shouts of triumph? 
If every word spoken in behalf of truth has its influ- 
ence and every deed done for the right weighs in the 
final account, it is immaterial to the Christian whether 
his eyes behold victory or whether he dies in the mid^t 
of the conflict. 

"Yea. though thou lie upon the dust, 

W''hen they who helped thee flee in fear, 

Die full of hope and manly trust, 

Like tliose who fell in battle here. 

"Another hand thy sword shall wield, 

Another hand the standard wave. 
Till from the trumpets mouth is pealed 

The blast of triumph o'er thy grave." 

"Only those who believe attempt the seemingly im- 
possible, and, by attempting, prove that one with God 
can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand 
to flight. I can imagine that the early Christians who 



168 BRYAN THE MAX 

were carried into the arena to make a spectacle for 
those more savage than the beasts, were entreated by 
their doubting companions not to endanger their 
iive^. But, kneeling in the center of the arena, they 
prayed and sang until they were devoured. How help- 
less they seemed, and, measured by every human 
rule, how helpless was their cause! And yet within a 
few decades the power which they invoked proved 
mightier than the legions of the emperor, and the 
faith in which they died was triumphant o'er all that 
land. It is said that those who went to mock at their 
sufferings returned asking themselves 'What is it 
that can enter into the heart of man and make him 
die as these die?' They were greater conquerers in 
their death than they could have been had they pur- 
chased life by a surrender of their faith. 

''What would have been the fate of the church if 
the early Christians had had as little faith as many of 
our Christians now have? And, on the other hand, if 
the Christians of today had the faith of the martyrs, 
how long would it be before the fulfillment of the 
prophecy that every knee shall bow and every tongue 
confess? 

"Our faith should be even stronger than the faith nf 
those who lived two thousand years ago for we see our 
religion spreading and supplanting the philosophies 
and creeds of the Orient. 

"As the Christian grows older he appreciates more 
and more the completeness with which Christ fills the 
requirements of the heart, and, grateful for the peace 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 169 

which he enjoys and for the strength which he has 
received, he repeats the words of the great scholar, Sir 
William Jones: 

"Before thy mystic altar, heavenly truth, 
I kneel in manhood, as I knelt in youth, 
Thus let me kneel till this dull form decav. 
And life's last shade be brightened by thy ray." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Bryan's friends. 

Mr. Bryan has friends in almost every rank in life. 
Possibly he has more in the workingman's class than 
in others. It is hard to say. He undoubtedly has a 
comf)rehensive knowledge of the United States, in 
sections and as a whole. For some fifteen or twenty 
years he has journeyed up and down, in and out, 
across and back, over this country, until he knows 
every city, every village and almost every crossroad. 
It is small wonder that he has gained some friends in 
this journeying to and fro and it is probable that he 
has gained more in his non-political talks than in his 
regular campaign speeches. 

Augustus Thomas, in the North American Review 
for June, 1908, says: 

"It is impossible to listen to Mr. Bryan through an 
extended discourse and not gain an added apprecia- 
tion of the character of the man; and this impression 
is abiding. He has gained innumerable friends in his 
non-political talks." 

An example of the steadfastness of some of his 
friends who would cleave to him even after death is 
the action of B. B. Norris of Mexico, Mo., who died 

170 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 171 

in 1900. Mr. Norris left in.striictions that the follow- 
ing epitaph be carved upon his tombstone: 

"Kind friends I've left behind. 
Cast your votes for Jennings Bryan." 

Speaker Cannon was surprised in Pennsylvania 
once by an evidence of the number of friends Mr. 
Bryan has in the Keystone state. It was in Philadel- 
phia, Oct. 18, 1906, when Mr. Cannon was addressing 
an audience in the Academy of Music. During a 
pause a voice shouted, "How about Bryan?" 

Mr. Cannon replied, ''He is wasting his time going 
about the country speaking." 

''He's the next President, all right," the voice an- 
swered. 

"That is one man's opinion," retorted the speaker. 

And the voice answered, "Is it? Three cheers for 
Bryan !" And that Pennsylvania audience responded 
with such cheers as have seldom been heard within 
the staid precincts of the Academy of Music. 

Another instance of the number of Bryan's friends 
in an entirely different section of the country is 
evinced in the story that came from Denver in June, 
1906. It was on June 10, that Dr. Coyle, pastor of 
the Central Presbyterian church, told in his pulpit of 
Mr. Bryan's refusing an invitation to a great dinner 
in Japan, given on Sunday by a governor of one of the 
provinces, Mr. Bryan declined the invitation, ex- 



172 BRYAN THE MAN 

plaining simply, ''I always go to church on the Lord's 
day." After relating this incident, Dr. Coyle de- 
clared : 

"Nothing on earth but the death of President Roose- 
velt can keep Mr. Bryan from being the next Presi- 
dent of the United States." 

And, according to the press report, the vast con- 
gregation "stood up, cheered and wildly applauded, 
forgetting their surroundings." 

This is but one example of the manner in which 
Mr. Bryan makes friends. They do not always agree 
with his political theories, and not all of them vote for 
him on election day, but that they are his friends 
cannot be denied. 

Many of the boyhood friends of Mr. Bryan con- 
tinue to be the close friends of today. One of his 
close advisers is Mayor F. W. Brown, of Lincoln, a 
friend in the days of their young manhood in Jack- 
sonville, 111. Mr. Brown has been twice elected mayor 
of Lincoln, a Republican city, and his success has 
pleased Mr. Bryan. Mayor Brown was elected a dele- 
gate at large to the Denver convention of 1908, and 
served as Nebraska's member of the resolution com- 
mittee. 

Edward H. Goltra, the St. Louis millionaire in 
whose yacht the Bryans spent their first night after 
their return to America in 1906^ went to school with 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 173 

Bryan. Mrs. Goltra and Mrs. Bryan also were school- 
mates in Illinois. 

In England Mr. Bryan was received by King Ed- 
ward. He was also welcomed by a gray haired woman 
in a little cottage in Oxfordshire. She gave him a 
parcel and a message of love. Mr. Bryan handed over 
the parcel, which contained a plum pudding, and de- 
livered the words of affection to Motorman John Cole, 
who guides a College View car, east of the Bryan farm 
and whose home it was that Bryan visited in Oxford- 
shire. 

Neighbors received tokens from abroad, pebbles 
from the Sea of Galilee and other curios. 

Numbered among Mr. Bryan's intimate friends is 
Farmer J. V. Wolfe, with whom Mr. Bryan has 
gravely debated the gopher problem at the semi- 
monthly meeting of the Farmers' Club. Dr. A. G. 
Faulkner owns a handsome residence near the Bryan 
place. For fifteen years Dr. Faulkner lived in Mr. 
Bryan's precinct and voted against him every time. 
He says he will never again vote against a neighbor 
who is running for the Presidency of the United 
States. Another neighbor is J. C. Seacrest, who is in- 
terested in two Republican new.spapers. 

Dr. P. L. Hall, president of the Central National 
Bank of Lincoln, is now" Democratic national commit- 
teeman. He is a prominent leader of his party and 



174 BRYAN THE MAN 

has been a firm friend and trusted counselor of Bryan 
for years. He was educated for the medical profession 
but later became a financier. Dr. Hall stands high 
in the councils of his party and has declined on sev- 
eral occasions high political honors. Pie has served 
as state chairman in several campaigns. 

T. S. Allen, a brother-in-law of Mr. Bryan, has 
been chairman of the Democratic state central com- 
mittee. He has led the Nebraska Democracy in sev- 
eral hotly contested political fights. 

H. E. Newbranch, of Omaha, H. C. Richmond, of 
Fremont, Arthur F. Mullen, of O'Neill, H. H. Hanks, 
of Nebraska City, John Donovan, of Madison, Edgar 
HoAvard, of Columbus, "Chris." Gruenther, of Platte 
Center, and C. J. Bowlby, of Crete, are active par- 
tisans in the Bryan ranks in Nebraska. 

Embracing men and women of every calling and 
all conditions of humanity, Mr. Bryan's enthusiastic 
friends are loyal and true. For twelve years he has 
been their idol and their prophet. And at Fairview 
the distinguished guest receives no more marks of 
favor nor more courteous welcome than the humblest 
citizen of the commonwealth. 

The free silver delegation which left Lincoln for 
Chicago, July 5, 1(896, was as follows: Delegates-at- 
large, W. J. Bryan, Lincoln; C. J. Smyth, Omaha; 
W. H. Thompson, Grand Island; and W. D. Oldham, 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. I75 

Kearney. District delegates, Frank J. Morgan, Cass 
county; C. S. Jones, Lancaster county; John A. 
Creighton and Charles H. Brown, Douglas county; 
C. Hollenbeck, Dodge county; G. A. Luikart, Madi.-on 
county; C. J. Bowlby, Saline county; Ed. C. Biggs, 
Seward county; D. Walsh, Red Willow county; F. A. 
Thompson, Clay county; Dr. A. T. Blackburn, Holt 
county; and J. C. Dahlman, Dawes county. Among 
other Nebraskans who were active at the Nebraska 
headquarters at the Clifton hotel in Chicago that year 
were G. M. Hitchcock, J. H. McDonald and J. B. 
Sheehan, of Omaha; Henry Koehler, of Blue Hill, 
and D. P. Rolfe, of Nebraska City. 

The list of Nebraska delegates to the Democratic 
convention of 1900 at Kansas City was as follows: 

Delegates-at-large : A. S. Tibbetts, R. L. Metcalfe, 
W. H. Thompson, W. D. Oldham. Alter nates-at- 
large: Edward Streeter, A. A. Plummer, F. J. Mor- 
gan, Dr. Bowman. 

First district: Delegates, C. E. Cotton, J. H. Miles; 
alternates, A. F. Nelson, J. W. Johnson. 

Second district : Delegates, A. J. Creighton, L. J. 
Patti; alternates, P. J. Melia, P. H. Dessler. 

Third district: Delegates, P. H. Kohl, Jonas 
Welch; alternates, W. S. Collett, James W. Tanner. 

Fourth district: Delegates, W. H. Taylor, Harry 
Metzer; alternates, G. O. Brophy, J. F. Gerecke. 



176 BRYAN THE MAN 

Fifth district: Delegates, G. W. Tibbetts, Patrick 
Walsh; alternates, Fred England, A. F. Kelly. 

Sixth district: Delegates, M. C. Harrington, T. F. 
Mahoney; alternates, Samuel Smy.ser, C. A. Barnes. 

Among prominent Nebraskans other than delegates 
who appeared at the convention were Governor Poyn- 
ter. General P. H. Barry, J. C. Dahlman, F. W. Brown, 
R. S. Horton, G. M. Hitchcock, R. S. Horton, Fred 
Cosgrove Dr. P. L. Hall, Tom ^Vorrall, Lee Herdman, 
Dr. Edwards, Clay Edwards, Edgar Howard, S. M. 
Patterson, Dr. J. N. Lyman, J. G. Maher, W. B. Price, 
J. H. Edmisten, E. E. Brown, Benton Maret and Sen- 
ator Allen. 

The Nebraska delegates to the Democratic national 
convention of 1908, pledged to Bryan and instructed 
to vote for him throughout the nominating contast, 
were as follows: 

Delegates-at-large — Mayor F. \V. Brown, Lincoln; 
I. J. Dunn, Omaha; Dan V. Stephens, Fremont; Felix 
J. Hale, Atkinson. 

First district — John H. Moorhead, Falls City; Mon- 
roe T. Connor, Auburn. Alternates, John K. Hen- 
ninger, Pawnee City; George Warren, Tecumseh. 

Second district^ — George Rogers, Omaha; Dr. W. J. 
McCrann, South Omaha. Alternates, Thomas F. 
Kelly, Washington county; J. A. Peterson, Sarpy 
county. 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 177 

Third district — William A. Smith, Buemer; Phil 
H, Kohl, Wayne. Alternates, James Hughes, Schuy- 
ler; B. N. Saunders, Creighton. 

Fourth district — J. F. Gerke, Se .vard ; Bartholemew 
Koehler, Geneva. Alternates, Charles Krumbach, 
Shelby; John Byrnes, Hebron. 

Fifth district--C. E. Harmon, Holdrege; B. F. 
Scroggin, Oak. Alternates, R. S. Logan, Stockville; 
James Bell, Franklin. 

Sixth district — Andrew M. Morrissey, Valentine; 
James R. Swayne, Ord, Alternates, Joseph Ober- 
felder, Sidney; A. I. Woodsum, Lexington. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

NOTES ON Bryan's career. 

Eighteen thousand miles was the distance traveled 
by Mr. Bryan in the campaign of 1896. That was the 
equivalent of several journeys across the American 
continent, and equal to three-fourths of the distance 
around the globe. On that extensive tour Bryan paid 
as much attention to the smaller towns as to the larger 
ones. He stopped at nearly all of them, ate his meals 
in various sorts of places, slept in all kinds of beds, 
was awakened at unseasonable hours, slumbered when 
he could catch a few moments for rest and came 
through it all strong and rugged. 

One of Bryan's unprejudiced biographers says of 
him : "He does not .«moke or use intoxicants. His 
wit is .sharp and his mind active. He tells a story well, 
and has a fine sense of humor. He uses the best of 
English, is cultured, well read and an orator of great 
convincing power. Dresses in black and wears a soft 
hat. In Europe he wore a silk hat. His mouth is 
the most prominent feature of his countenance. It is 
large and expressive." 

A typical Bryan story, told by his opponents, 
came out at the time the government decided to issue 
a thirteen-cent stamp for registered letters to foreign 
countries. Almost before the announcement was 

178 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 179 

"cold" a Kansas man wrote to the third assistant post- 
master general, requesting that the face of Mr. Brj^an 
adorn the new thirteen-cent stamp. "He has been so 
famous, but so unlucky," explained the Kansan. The 
department wrote back and told its correspondent that 
the faces of men who were dead were the only ones 
eligible for stamps. The Kansan turned the letter 
over and scribbled: "Well, ain't he dead enough?" 
This story is not vouched for by the authors. It is 
merely related to give an idea of the kind of humor 
to which Mr. Bryan was subjected during the early 
years of his national career. It is evident that he has 
refused to stay "dead." All of the political signs for 
the year 1908, a long time after the above joke was 
originated, showed that Mr. Bryan was still very much 
alive. 

Henry Barrett Chamberlain, editor of the Voter, a 
political magazine published in Chicago, says there 
was a small Presidential bee buzzing within the con- 
fines of Mr. Bryan's headgear when he left Omaha 
for the national convention of 189'6. Bryan was in 
the office of the World-Herald, of which he was editor, 
a short time before taking a street car for the depot 
and, according to Mr. Chamberlain, was talking with 
Frank Basil Tracy, now an eastern newspaper man 
but then managing a news bureau in Omaha. "Have 
you a chance. Will, to land the big prize?" was 



180 BRYAN THE MAN 

Tracy's inquiry as they stood at the top of the ser- 
pentine stairway which led from the editorial floor to 
the business office below. "I may have, Frank," was 
the answ^er. "We think that this silver movement has 
taken a strong hold on the people and there is a 
chance that we may have a sufficient number of dele- 
gates to control the convention. There w^ll not be 
much merit in the fight. If we have the delegates in 
sufficient numbers we will seat our fellows. If the 
gold people are in strong force we will be denied a 
hearing. I have my lightning rod up and my hear- 
ing is splendid. I shall be able to hear any call that 
comes in my direction." The boys in the World- 
Herald office, says Mr. Chamberlain, wished Bryan 
good luck. It was a half-serious joke that he might 
be possible Presidential timber. The late Carl Smith, 
then managing editor, afterward of the Chicago Rec- 
ord, was one of his "rooters," and so was R. L. Met- 
calfe, now associate editor of the Commoner and at 
that time Mr. Bryan's editorial associate on the 
World-Herald. All of the "boys" in the office were 
talking and joking about Bryan's chances and were 
choosing the appointments they would ask for in the 
event of the editor's success in the convention and at 
the polls. Chamberlain has an amusing story about 
Gilbert Hitchcock, owner of the World-Herald, who 
accompanied Bryan and who was to help cover the 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 181 

convention. When the surprise came in the form of 
Bryan's nomination Hitchcock was so excited that 
about all he could send to Omaha was ''Hurrah for 
Bryan," and it required a deft manipulation of 
"copy" in the Omaha office to complete the conven- 
tion story of that day. 

It has been said, on presumably good authority, 
that Mr. Bryan's newspaper salary, at the time of his 
nomination for the Presidency, was $30 a week. 
When he went to Chicago to attend the convention 
that nominated him for the highest office in the land 
Bryan, according to one biographer, had $60. He 
stopped at the Clifton house, across the street from the 
more pretentious Palmer house, and when he arrived 
at the hotel he gave the clerk an envelope containing 
his money, excepting two or three dollars which he 
wanted for incidental expenses as he moved about the 
city. At the conclusion of the convention proceed- 
ings, after he had been nominated for President, 
Bryan paid his hotel bill, which was only $30, and 
started for Omaha with nearly $30 in his pocket. 
Bryan himself says, "for the encouragement of those 
who still believe that money is not necessary to secure 
a Presidential nomination," that his entire expenses 
while in attendance upon the convention were less 
than $100. He had a small room in the hotel, at 
a reasonable rate, and when he arrived no more atten- 



182 BRYAN THE MAN 

tion was paid him by the hotel management than was 
paid to hundreds of other applicants for accommoda- 
tions. He arrived in Chicago unhonored and unob- 
served. Pie left with his name upon every tongue, 
the nominee of a great party for the highest office 
within the gift of the American people. 

We quote Mr. Chamberlain again: "When Mr. 
Bryan finally made his sensational speech, divesting 
himself of the 'crown of thorns and cross of gold' 
argument, which gave him fame and afterward the 
Democratic nomination and leadership, he went back 
to his hotel and to his little room. His performance 
in the convention hall had reached the ears of the 
management of the hostelry and it was suggested that 
he ought to have more commodious quarters, but Mr. 
Bryan was deaf to the suggestion. He felt that he 
could not afford a better room than the one he was 
occupying. When he was nominated the manage- 
ment insisted that he move to the parlor floor — an 
insignificant bedroom was no place for the standard- 
bearer of a great party. ]\Ir. Bryan moved on the 
assurance that the new quarters would not cost more 
than those he was occupying." 

The Chicago speech which won the nomination for 
Bryan in 1896 was not written out in full. Portions 
of the oration had been used in a Fourth of July 
debate with John P. Irish at Crete, Neb. Irish was 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 183 

President Cleveland's collector of the port of San 
Francisco and was noted as an orator. Several thou- 
sand Nebraskans shouted approval of Bryan's speech 
at Crete, while Irish was a long distance from having 
the sympathy of his audience. Gilbert M. Hitch- 
cock, owner of the Omaha World-Herald, is author- 
ity for the statement that Bryan's famous speech was 
never written out. Hitchcock says an attempt was to 
have been made to elect Bryan as permanent chair- 
man of the convention and that the speech was to be 
used in that connection. However, when the fight 
over the platform began Mr. Bryan faced an alto- 
gether different situation when he arose to speak. The 
conditions were right for him, however; he drew in- 
spiration from the audience; he had his subject well 
in hand and years of hard work at oratory made him 
equal to the great task. 

Mr. Bryan's own account of the delivery of that 
famous Chicago address is as follows: "Just before 
the platform was reported to the convention, Senator 
Jones (the late James K. Jones) sent for me and 
asked me to take charge of the debate. In dividing 
the time I was to have twenty minutes to close, 
but as the minority used ten minutes more than the 
time originally allotted, my time was extended ten 
minutes. The concluding sentence of my speech was 
criticized both favorably and unfavorably. I had 



184 BRYAN THE MAN 

used the idea in substantially the same form in a 
speech in Congress, but did not recall the fact when I 
used it in the convention. A portion of the speech 
was extemporaneous, and its arrangement entirely so, 
but parts had been prepared for another occasion. 
Next to the conclusion (the portion referring to the 
crown of thorns and cross of gold) the part most 
quoted was the definition of the term, 'basiness men.' 
Since I became interested in the discussion of mone- 
tary questions, I have often had occasion to note and 
comment upon the narrowne.ss of some of the terms 
used, and nowhere is this narrowness more noticeable 
than in the attempt to ignore the most important 
business men of the country, the real creators of 
wealth." 

One of Mr. Bryan's gifts to the public, for which 
he has the thanks of the people of Lincoln, was a 
tract of ground that has been added to the City park. 
This new park lies between the city proper and Bry- 
an's suburban home and borders a small stream called 
the Antelope. A number of gifts of land were made, 
one of the largest being that of Mr. Bryan, and when 
the park was opened two years ago he was the prin- 
cipal speaker. Mayor Brown, of Lincoln, is one of 
Bryan's closest friends and it was through him that 
the offering of a part of the Fairview estate for public 
use was made. Bryan's brother, Charles W., is a mem- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 185 

ber of the Lincoln Park Commission and he takes a 
particular pride in helping to develop the pleasure 
ground, especially in the acquirement of a ''zoo," 
which now includes a number of wild animals of the 
western plains that graze almost up to the west fence 
of the Bryan farm. 

Visitors to Lincoln who desire to see the Bryan 
home may take a "College A'^iew" street car near any 
of the depots and ride to the little station near the 
farm. This station is a diminutive affair of frame 
and is simply a tiny shelter for waiting passengers 
when the weather makes standing out of doors an 
unpleasant task. The Bryan house is a five-minutes' 
walk from the trolley line, and those who do not have 
the time to leave the car may get an ample survey of 
Fairview from where they sit in the moving coach. 

Mr. Bryan votes at Normal, the little suburban vil- 
lage lying south of the Bryan farm and between it 
and College View\ The polling place is a small store 
and Bryan is always there on election day. He takes 
an interest in all the affairs of the neighborhood and 
belongs to a farmers' club that is composed of resi- 
dents of the Normal district. Sometimes this club 
meets at Fairview and its members, including women 
and men, always find a cordial welcome in the Bryan 
home. 

The "D street cottage," in which Bryan lived dur- 



186 BRYAN THE MAN 

ing the campaigns of 1896 and 1900. when he Ava.s a 
candidate for the Presidency, has twice been sold since 
Mr. Bryan disposed of it and moved to his country 
home. It is still one of the city's "points of interest" 
and on the front porch may be seen the insulators 
that carried into the house the wires over which the 
news of two defeats was flashed. 

Mr. Bryan is not a hard man to interview, but he 
insists that he be quoted correctly. A few years ago 
he had an unhappy experience in Kansas City, one of 
the newspapers there crediting him with a statement 
that he did not make. It was not done intentionally, 
the reporter simply being '^twisted" as to his facts, but 
Mr. Bryan was for a long time exceedingly careful 
when he talked to a Kansas City newspaper man — 
and possibly he still uses the same measure of precau- 
tion when he goes there. If he is to give an interview 
on an important topic, he prefers to "write it out" for 
the reporter, and then he insists that the matter be 
printed just as he has prepared it. 

Bryan believes that the newspaper profession is the 
greatest on earth, and if he has his way about it his 
son, William J., Jr., will learn the business from the 
beginning as far as he can go, and devote his life 
to it. Bryan has little patience with some of the 
newspaper methods that are employed, but that does 
not destroy his respect for the profession. He be- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 187 

lieves that more good men ought to engage in it so 
that it may be lifted from the plane where it rests to 
the level upon which many conscientious editors and 
publishers throughout the civilized world are seeking 
to place it. 

At a banc|uet in Lincoln Mr. Bryan good-naturedly 
countered on an opposition paper. The editor was 
present. Mr. Bryan alluded to this gentleman and 
remarked that he had much to be thankful for. He 
could now send a home paper to a friend, he said, 
without cutting out more than one-third of it. How- 
ever, Lincoln was such a pleasant city that one must 
excuse its unruly conduct on one day of the year — 
election day. 

Mr. Bryan hunts ducks at rare intervals. He op- 
poses the slaughter of animals and will not participate 
in a general hunting expedition. 

In the campaign of 1896 Mr: Bryan was given 
twenty horseshoes. He declared he did not know 
whether the number nullified the charm or whether 
he was really lucky after all. 

Artists have made much over the resemblance of 
Bryan to Washington. With a wig properly placed, 
the resemblance is startling. 

Chester Power, of Humboldt, Neb., affirms that Mr. 
Bryan has strict regard for his word. While stump- 
ing the First district some years ago, Mr. Bryan told 



188 BRYAN THE MAN 

the people of the town that after election he would 
return and ''see what the town needed." Two weeks 
after election he came. The Democrats were amazed 
in the first place to elect a Congressman. The second 
surprise came when he fulfilled this promise, made 
in the excitement of the canvass. 

In New York city a friend "evened up" with j\Irs. 
Bryan. "I am not an issue," Mrs. Bryan said pleas- 
antly to a reporter seeking an interview. "If you 
Avere," said a member of the national Democratic 
committee, "Mr. Bryan would have been President 
long ago." There was nothing for Mrs. Bryan to do 
except bow and smile. 

While speaking in Connecticut soon after his return 
from a trip around the world, Mr. Bryan told a story 
at the expense of his home city. He said: "Out of 
my abundance of caution, and exhibiting that con- 
versation Avhich people say is more evident than it 
used to be (laughter) I have tried to restrain myself 
to strict non-partisanship. One time delegates from 
all the churches of my city held a meeting in a 
church to discuss certain political principles. I was 
not content to let a Republican do all the talking. 
So I went and spoke. "Next morning a Republican 
made a great roar by saying that Bryan had dese- 
crated a church by making a political speech. 'He 
said vote for the best man,' asserted the irate Repub- 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 189 

lican. So since that time I have be^n more than 
careful." 

Easterners were greatly amused at a story Mr. 
Bryan told at his own expense. It seemed that Mr. 
Bryan had been called on to deliver an address near 
his home city. "The chairman, a good-natured Irish- 
man," said Mr. Bryan, "came to me and wanted to 
know how I wanted to be introduced. I asked him to 
refer to me as 'Mr. Bryan, a lawyer of Jacksonville.' 
I had just been admitted to the bar and wanted the 
fact known. The chairman came to me half a dozen 
times to be sure he had it right, and finally introduced 
me, saying, 'Mr. O'Brien will now shpake.' " 

At Stamford, Conn., the train stopped in such a 
position that hundreds of people who wanted to see 
the traveller who had just returned from Europe had 
to cross a narrow footbridge. However, about a hun- 
dred managed to get to the rear platform. "Ladies 
and gentlemen," said Mr. Bryan. "All aboard," 
shouted the conductor. "I have only a moment to 
greet you," said Mr. Bryan, speaking louder as the 
train moved faster, "and that is not enough to enter 
upon the discussion of any subject." While the 
crowd stood in amazement Mr, Bryan's voice rang 
out clear as a bugle from the platform of the retreat- 
ing train: "I'll come again." Then everybody 
shouted w^ith delight. 



190 BRYAN THE MAN 

In a New Jersey city Mr. Bryan by a deft oratorical 
thrust rescued a man from the grasp of three police- 
men and won round after round of applause. The 
speaker had just alluded to his defeat for the Presi- 
dency. "Yes, and well do it again," shrieked a man 
in the crowd. A policeman seized him and the officer 
was quickly joined by two others. Like a flash Mr. 
Bryan thundered: "Officer, let that man alone. He 
has a right to his opinions. He's just the man I am 
talking to." 

In Lincoln, during the Bryan reception in Septem- 
ber, 1906, a 4-year-old colored boy, Adonis Andrews, 
was injured by falling under the wheels of a carriage. 
Mr. Bryan visited the boy while the surgeon was 
present. He took especial interest in the youth and 
rendered the injured one all the assistance in his 
power. 

During his trip around the world Mr. Bryan was 
accorded flattering honors. At San Francisco, Cal., 
in October, 1905, he was given a rousing "send off." 
At Honolulu he was received by the governor, in- 
dulged in surf riding and visited the various points 
of interest. In Japan he was presented to the Mikado 
at a reception for Admiral Togo. Korean officials 
extended many courtesies. He addressed the Filipino 
assembly and was made a Datto. In China he made 
addresses at Hong Kong and Canton. In Egypt he 



FROM A REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT. 191 

was entertained royally in Cairo and Alexandria. 
When he reached Hungary he was received with the 
highest honors in Budapest. At Constantinople he 
was the chief attraction. In India Mr. Bryan con- 
versed with famous scholars of the country. In Italy 
he was a guest at many banquets. Mr. Bryan made 
addresses before important gatherings in France. 
Switzerland accorded him the highest honors of the 
government. In Norway he was present at the coro- 
nation of King Haakon. Mr. Bryan addressed the 
duma at St. Petersburg. In Germany he was honored 
by the Kaiser. In England he met King Edward, he 
was a guest of Ambassador Reid and he made a 
Fourth of July address. In Holland he was the na- 
tion's guest and visited all points of interest. In New 
York, August 30, he was given a memorable recep- 
tion by his friends. All these honors were unex- 
pected. Mr. Bryan had planned to take a quiet trip. 






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